Vinesh Phogat, an Indian wrestler, was worried that she might pass away during the strenuous work-cut session the night before the women’s 50kg final of the Paris Olympics 2024, according to her coach Woller Akos of Hungary, who made this revelation a few days after the Court of Arbitration for Sports rejected Phogat’s disqualification plea, as reported by Hindustan Times.
On August 7, Phogat was supposed to compete in her final gold medal match against Sarah Hildebrandt of the United States; however, she had to pass a demanding exam first. Despite her greatest efforts, Vinesh and her coaching team were unable to reduce the final 100 grams of weight, which led to her disqualification.
Her coach Woller Akos disclosed that Vinesh’s weight control methods included hair cutting, blood draws, and other drastic techniques.
As reported by HT, Akos provided a detailed explanation of the behind-the-scenes efforts to reduce Phogat’s weight. “After the semi-final, there was 2.7 kg of excess weight left; we exercised for one hour and twenty minutes, but 1.5 kg still remained,” he stated. She spent fifty minutes in the sauna, and nary a drop of sweat fell on her. There was nothing else for it, so she spent the next three quarters of an hour, with two to three minutes of respite, working out on various cardio machines and wrestling techniques from midnight to 5:30 in the morning. Subsequently, she resumed. She passed out, but we managed to get her upright, and she spent an hour
Akos recalls Phogat’s statement: Phogat experienced extreme physical exhaustion while trying to lose weight in the short time leading up to her gold medal fight against her American opponent. In addition, she had to go to the hospital following her disqualification. Akos had already written a Hungarian post about this, but it has since been removed.
Recalling her chat with Phogat on her way home from the hospital, Akos had wrote, “We had an interesting conversation that night, returning from the hospital,” which HT cited. ‘Coach, don’t be unhappy since you told me that if I find myself in any difficult position and need extra energy, I should think that I beat the best lady wrestler (Japan’s Yui Susaki) in the ring,’ said Vinesh Phogat.