More than 16 months after Haryana’s three-time Olympian wrestler Vinesh Phogat announced her retirement after the Paris fiasco saying “your dream, my courage, everything had shattered” on August 8 last year, the 31-year-old grappler on Friday announced her return to wrestling. She said, “I still love this sport, and I still want to compete.”
“People kept asking if Paris was the end. For a long time, I didn’t have the answer. I took time to understand the weight of my journey – the highs, the heartbreaks, the sacrifices, the version of me the world never saw,” read an introspective post on her official X account.
‘Still loved the sport, wanted to compete
She added that somewhere in that reflection, she found the truth that she still loved the sport and still wanted to compete. Saying that she was stepping back towards Los Angeles Olympics in 2028, Ms. Phogat, now a Congress MLA from Julana, said “the fire never left”, and “it was only buried under exhaustion and noise”.
On the verge of making a history, Ms. Phogat, had to return empty-handed after she was disqualified from the Paris Olympics for being around 100 gm overweight after reaching the 50 kg final. She later made an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport for a joint Silver medal, but it was dismissed.
