The Indian 50kg wrestler failed to make a critical second weight cut Wednesday morning to be able to take part in the gold medal period.Her disqualification from the Paris Olympics 2024 was only due to 100 grams over the weight limit in the 50 kg category.
what is a weight cut?
Wrestlers,boxers and combat related sport athletes have weight categories in which athletes participate.In these type of categories one rule is there. According to that rule don’t allow athletes above that weight to participate in that competitions.Basically,sport does not want a bigger athlete to take part against a smaller athlete.But sometimes bigger athletes pick to cut weight, that means they rapidly losing a set number of kilos before the competition.It’s a quite a common practice in combat sports.
Career Highlights: Vinesh Phogat is a two-time Olympian along with three commonwealth Games golds, two World championships bronze medals, and one Asian Games gold medal.
Reactions of different celebrities: Along with Prime minister Narendra Modi, UP chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Rio Olympics bronze medalist Sakshi Malik, Tokyo Olympics medallist Bajrang Punia,and former world champion Nikhat Zareen all have expressed their encouragement for Vinesh Phogat.
What is the reason for Vinesh Phogat’s weight loss was tough?
Vinesh Phogat has always struggled to cut weight for the 50 kg category.She was participate in the 53 kg category recently before she moved to 50 kg category. Phogat’s generally weight is around 55.56 kg which she has to cut to 50 kg upto the day of competition. Losing this much of weight quite tough and extremely challenging for the Indian wrestler.
According to UWW, ” If an athlete does not attend or fails the weigh-in( the 1st or the 2nd weigh-in), he/she will be eliminated from the competition and also ranked last, without rank.Also if the athlete is injured during the 1st day, he doesn’t have to attend the second weigh-in and will keep his results.”