Vinesh Phogatਵਿਨੇਸ਼ ਫੋਗਾਟ

Vinesh Phogat is an Indian freestyle wrestler and politician from Balali village in Charkhi Dadri district, Haryana. A three-time Olympian, she became the first Indian woman wrestler to reach an Olympic final when she made the 50 kg final at Paris 2024. She has won three Commonwealth Games gold medals, gold at the 2018 Asian Games, and two World Championship bronze medals. In 2024 she retired from wrestling, joined the Indian National Congress, and was elected to the Haryana Legislative Assembly from Julana.

Early life

Vinesh Phogat was born on 25 August 1994 in Balali, in what is now Charkhi Dadri district of Haryana. She is the daughter of Rajpal Phogat and Premlata Phogat, and she grew up in a family where wrestling was a way of life. Her sister Priyanka Phogat and her cousins Geeta Phogat, Babita Kumari and Ritu Phogat all competed in wrestling, and she was trained by her uncle Mahavir Singh Phogat. Her father died when she was nine. In those early years her father and uncle faced opposition in the village for backing girls in competitive wrestling, which many in the community saw as going against tradition.

On 13 December 2018 she married fellow wrestler Somvir Rathee, from Jind. The two had known each other since 2011, and both worked for the Indian Railways. The Phogat family, and the film made about her cousins Geeta and Babita, made the name Phogat known across India long before Vinesh became a star in her own right.

Rise in wrestling

Vinesh won her first international medal, a bronze, in the 51 kg category at the 2013 Asian Wrestling Championships in New Delhi. The same year she took silver at the Commonwealth Wrestling Championships in Johannesburg. At her first Commonwealth Games, in Glasgow in 2014, she won gold in the 48 kg category, beating Yana Rattigan of England 3-1 in the final. A few weeks later she won bronze at the Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea.

She qualified for her first Olympics, Rio 2016, through a qualification tournament in Istanbul, and won her opening bout against Alina Vuc of Romania. Her run ended in the quarterfinal against Sun Yanan of China, when she suffered a knee ligament injury midway through the match and had to stop. She came back strongly. At the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast she won all her matches in the round-robin 50 kg event to take her second Commonwealth gold, and at the Asian Games in Jakarta later that year she beat Yuki Irie of Japan in the final to win gold. That made her the first Indian woman wrestler to win gold at both the Asian Games and the Commonwealth Games.

World medals and Tokyo 2020

At the 2019 World Wrestling Championships in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, Vinesh won bronze in the 53 kg category by beating Maria Prevolaraki of Greece. The result also made her the first Indian wrestler to qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. She won gold at the Asian Championships in Almaty in 2021, and in March 2021 she became the world number one in the 53 kg category.

At Tokyo 2020 she was seeded first in the 53 kg event. She beat Sofia Mattsson of Sweden in her opening bout, then lost her quarterfinal to Vanesa Kaladzinskaya of Belarus. After the Games the Wrestling Federation of India suspended her for indiscipline, saying she had refused to train with her Indian teammates in the Olympic Village and had not worn the official Indian kit. She later apologised to the federation.

She returned to the top of the podium at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, winning her third straight Commonwealth gold in the 53 kg category. Weeks later she won her second World Championship bronze, in Belgrade, fighting through the repechage rounds after losing her opening bout.

Why was Vinesh Phogat disqualified at Paris 2024?

For Paris 2024 Vinesh moved down to the 50 kg category, after Antim Panghal had secured the Olympic quota in the 53 kg class. She earned her place at the Asian qualification tournament in Bishkek. In Paris she produced one of the great runs of the Games. In the opening round she beat Japan's Yui Susaki, the reigning Olympic and world champion, who had won gold in Tokyo without conceding a single point. She then beat Oksana Livach of Ukraine in the quarterfinal and Yusneylys Guzman of Cuba in the semifinal to reach the final, becoming the first Indian woman wrestler ever to reach an Olympic final.

On the morning of the final, 7 August 2024, she was weighed in at 100 grams over the 50 kg limit and was disqualified from the competition. Under the rules she was placed last in the classification, with no medal despite having won three bouts. The next day she announced her immediate retirement from wrestling. India appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, asking that she be awarded a joint silver medal, but the appeal was dismissed in August 2024.

The 2023 wrestlers' protest

In January 2023 Vinesh joined more than 30 Indian wrestlers in a protest against the Wrestling Federation of India and its president, Brijbhushan Sharan Singh. The wrestlers alleged that coaches linked to the federation had sexually harassed female wrestlers over several years, and they demanded action against the federation chief. The protest was paused after the government agreed to form an oversight committee, but it resumed in April 2023 when the wrestlers said the government had not kept its promises. On 28 May 2023 Vinesh and other protesting wrestlers were detained by Delhi Police as they tried to march towards Parliament. The protest later led to sexual harassment charges being filed against the former federation chief.

The dispute ran on through 2023. The Sports Ministry asked the Indian Olympic Association to suspend the federation and set up an ad-hoc panel, and United World Wrestling suspended the federation's membership in August 2023 after elections for a new chief were not held. Fresh federation elections were held in December 2023. On 31 August 2024 Vinesh also joined the farmers' protest at the Shambhu border, between Punjab and Haryana, in support of a legal guarantee for a minimum support price for crops.

From the mat to the assembly

After returning from Paris, Vinesh was welcomed home with a roadshow from Delhi airport to her village, and supporters urged her to enter politics. On 6 September 2024 she joined the Indian National Congress, after meeting party president Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi. The party fielded her from the Julana Assembly constituency in the Haryana election held on 5 October 2024.

She won on 8 October 2024 with 65,080 votes, defeating the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Yogesh Kumar by 6,015 votes, and took office the same day as the member of the Haryana Legislative Assembly for Julana. It was the Congress party's first win in Julana since 2005. Before the result she had said she would fight for the rights of women and focus on unemployment in the state.

Honours and legacy

Vinesh received the Arjuna Award in 2016, and in 2020 she was awarded the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna, India's highest sporting honour. She was nominated for the Padma Shri in 2018. At her peak she reached the world number one ranking in the 53 kg category.

Her legacy rests on two things. As a wrestler she is the first Indian woman to reach an Olympic final, the only Indian woman wrestler to win gold at both the Asian Games and the Commonwealth Games, and a three-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist. Beyond the mat, her role in the 2023 wrestlers' protest and her move into elected politics made her one of the most recognised athletes in India, and a figure whose career is followed well beyond sport.