From the protest lines of Delhi to the Olympic gold match in Paris, a journey of defiance, heartbreak, and legacy
August in India is a month filled with remembrance of battles fought in dusty fields, assembly halls, and streets thronged with slogans. Our sporting stories often share this spirit of defiance. In the summer of 2024, as Paris prepared to crown its champions, Vinesh Phogat - one of India's most decorated wrestlers - stood on the cusp of making history.
She had already battled a war before stepping onto the mat: not against an opponent in a singlet, but against an entrenched sporting establishment, societal prejudice, and the weight of her country's expectations.
Born in Haryana, a state where the 2011 census revealed a sex ratio of just 879 women per 1,000 men, Vinesh's first victory was over tradition itself. Wrestling for women was frowned upon and sometimes ridiculed. But under the tutelage of her uncle Mahavir Singh Phogat - the same coach who moulded Geeta and Babita Phogat - she trained in the same dusty akhada where her cousins honed their craft.
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By her early twenties, she had turned promise into medals: three Commonwealth Games golds, two World Championship bronze medals, an Asian Games gold in 2018, and the Asian Championship crown in 2021.
In 2023, Vinesh became more than just an athlete - she became a symbol of resistance. That year, alongside Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Malik, she led protests in Delhi demanding action against the chief of the Wrestling Federation of India over allegations of sexual harassment. The images of her being dragged away by police from the steps of India's new Parliament became as much a part of her public legacy as any podium finish.
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For months, she balanced activism with training, often under the scrutiny of TV cameras and amid political hostility. Every victory in the gym was shadowed by court hearings and press conferences.
In early 2024, her qualification campaign was nothing short of remarkable. Against the odds, she reached the women's 50kg freestyle final in Paris - a first for an Indian woman wrestler at the Olympics. In the semi-finals, she overcame Cuba's Yusneylis Guzman Lopez with a calculated 6-4 win, blending tactical defence with lightning counters.
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She stood on the cusp of becoming India's first-ever Olympic wrestling silver medallist - and with one more win, its first gold medallist in the sport. But destiny intervened most brutally: on the morning of the final, her official weigh-in showed her over the limit by just 100 grams. Instant disqualification.
Two days after her disqualification in Paris in 2024, at just 29, Vinesh announced her retirement from wrestling. It was not the ending anyone expected - especially not herself. She dedicated her farewell to her mother, the woman whose resilience through widowhood and cancer had shaped her own determination.
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Her words carried the weight of both triumph and regret: she had fought the system, stood up for her peers, won medals for her country - and yet, in her eyes, she had fallen short of her dream.
For all the statistics, medals, and missed opportunities, Vinesh Phogat's story will be remembered for more than results. She is the only Indian woman wrestler to have won three Commonwealth Games gold medals (2014, 2018, 2022), the first to claim gold at both the Commonwealth and Asian Games, and a two-time World Championship bronze medalist.
She has stood atop international podiums over 15 times in her career, rising to world number one in her weight category in 2021. But beyond medals, she embodied the spirit that August asks us to remember - the will to stand one's ground when surrender would be easier.
