Vinesh Phogat's Night Of Torture: 'Drastic' Weight-Loss Ordeal That Saw Star Cutting Hair, Shortening Clothes

Of all the ways one can imagine about missing out on an Olympic medal, Vinesh Phogat's certainly falls in the rarest of rare category. Hours after the star Indian wrestler was disqualified from the women's 50kg final at the Paris Olympics 2024 for being 100 gram overweight, three Indian Olympic medallists - Ravi Dahiya, Saina Nehwal and Vijender Singh - told NDTV that they were astonished at the development. All of them agreed that they have never heard of such disqualification ever at top-level sport.  

Here's what happened to Vinesh after she won three bouts on Tuesday to become the first Indian woman wrestler ever to enter an Olympic final. In the morning on Wednesday, at the official weigh-in, it was found that Vinesh was 100 gram over the permissible 50kg for her weight category.  

India's Chief Medical Officer Dr. Dinshaw Paudiwala explained in details about what happened after her three bouts and before her weigh-in on Wednesday. 

"Vinesh had been competing in the 53kg till February. After that she started competing in 50kg as another athlete (Antim Panghal) had already earned the Olympic quota in that category. As you know only one wrestler from a country is permitted to compete in one category. Vinesh had two options - either to lower her weight division or increase it. Increase her weight category would mean that she could be competing against stronger athletes. Generally, reducing weight takes a lot of effort as Vinesh's natural weight is not 50kg," Pardiwala said. 

"Wrestlers usually participate in a weight category less than their natural weight. It gives them an advantage since they are fighting with less stronger opponents. The process of weight cut prior to the weigh-in in the morning involves a