Vinesh's victories dearer than gold

A day after the unkindest cut to what could have been a soul-stirring sporting coronation, Vinesh Phogat announced her retirement from wrestling. There was a sense of resignation when she wrote to her mother: "Ma, wrestling has won, I have lost. Please forgive me, your dreams and my courage, everything is broken..." With her morale shattered following the disqualification from her 50 kg freestyle gold-medal bout at the Paris Olympics for weighing 100 gm more than the permissible limit on Wednesday, the 29-year-old ended a career that only partly met the potential it promised. Having won multiple medals at the World Championship, the Asian Games, and the Asian Championship, Vinesh Phogat was a woman on a mission when she progressed to the final and ensured an Olympic medal — the only missing jewel in her decorated crown.

The disqualification meant that her three legit wins on the previous day, when her weight was within permissible limits, were also scratched from the record books. As bizarre as the rule may appear, it was written in black and white. That is what everyone had agreed to. But for a country starved of sporting success on the biggest stage of them all, missing out on an assured medal was a punch to the gut. While it will take some time for India’s sporting community to come to terms with it, a missed medal shouldn't define an otherwise inspiring legacy.

While it is unfortunate that Vinesh Phogat has become a weapon to settle scores on social media in a deeply political and polarised country, we should remember that her career transcends the sporting arena. When she won her semifinal bout and looked heavenwards with a mix of joy and relief, there was a sense of accomplishment. Though the feisty grappler didn't have to prove anything to herself, she needed to prove her detractors wrong. They included those who had doubted her abilities on the mat, those who had accused her of playing the system, and those who had vilified her for taking up a just cause. Phogat could have easily focused on training and tournaments and earned more laurels for herself, but she sacrificed almost two years of her wrestling career for women's rights in sports. She was one of the prominent faces of the wrestlers' protest and fought a powerful, predatory regime bent on normalising sexual harassment of women athletes. She slept on pavements, faced police brutality, and almost sunk her medals in the Ganga, but refused to quit the fight. If young women in her sport feel safer today, they know who to thank. That would be Vinesh Phogat's single biggest achievement. It is more precious than a metal she missed out on.