New Delhi: It’s not easy being Vinesh Phogat. How can it be for someone whose extraordinary life has oscillated between perseverance on the wrestling mat and stubbornness off it, traits that might mimic each other but differ vastly in nuance.
At 30, she is already retired from the sport that made her a household name as a veteran of three Olympic Games and it wouldn’t be off the mark to say that politics came in the way.
But far from blaming it, Vinesh is ready to embrace politics, hopeful that perhaps this time, she would be able to turn the corner.
The diminutive former grappler on Friday joined Congress and is set to try her electoral luck in Haryana assembly elections come October, something that has been speculated for several months.
From the wrestling arena, she bowed out as one of India’s finest athletes never to have medalled at an Olympics. It wasn’t for lack of effort or desire though.
Her desperation to be on that podium was witnessed by the world as she borderline abused her body to stay within the prescribed weight limit, but was found 100gm over on the day of the final.
It was the proverbial last straw that broke the camel’s back. The fight left her and Vinesh decided that there was only as much Olympic heartbreak that she could endure in a lifetime, having fallen short in her previous two attempts as well.
She couldn’t be faulted because by the time Vinesh landed in Paris, she had survived intimidation, police detention, backlash over a protest that she was spearheading, and a smear campaign that sought to portray her in negative light even when she was punishing her body to fit into a lower weight class just to compete.
It all seemed worth it in the French capital, where she became India’s first woman wrestler to reach the Olympics final after slogging for over 12 years.
The most eventful among these 12 years was 2023 when she took to the streets to protest against alleged sexual harassment of women grapplers by the then Wrestling Federation of India chief and powerful BJP leader Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.
She threatened to throw her national awards and medals into the Ganges at the peak of the protest and repeatedly sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention in the matter.
And for doing that, she was accused of peddling a political agenda. But she was not cowed down by that accusation.
The street protest after the courts intervened. What remained steadfast was Vinesh’s demand for accountability for Sharan Singh, who is currently fighting the charges legally.
All along that tumultuous phase, she was convinced that her fight was just.
Then, as she trained her sights on booking a ticket to the Paris Olympics, a new set of challenges stared her in the eye, as if telling her to leave the scene for good.
She had to drop down to 50kg after competing in 53kg for more than five years.
There were multiple issues with her trial bouts ahead the Olympic qualifiers, and then there was also the small matter of going through a knee surgery, years after an anterior cruciate ligament tear at the 2016 Rio Olympics nearly ended her career.
For this feisty woman, whose life was always riddled with hurdles, a lot has been at stake on almost every step of the way. Mere mortals would have caved in, but she hasn’t.
Her battles off the mat were, in fact, more challenging. But, in a way, those battles prepared her better to tackle her rivals in the competition.
She logged two world championship bronze medals, two Asian Games medals, including a gold, eight Asian championship medals, and three successive gold medals in the Commonwealth Games.
In all, she signed off with 15 medals, five of them gold, in various world and continental showpieces.
Vinesh was all of nine when her father died. Her mother became her pillar of strength and sport became her refuge.
Being the niece of Dronacharya awardee Mahavir Phogat, it was not entirely a surprise when she took to the mat.
Her elder siblings — Geeta and Babita — had already made a name for themselves and she too followed in their footsteps, seemingly destined for greatness. She did manage to tick most boxes but could not be on the Olympic podium despite coming within touching distance of it.
A Railways employee, she managed to outshine the other two Phogat sisters with not just her solid performances on the mat but also her candour off it.
She did not flinch while talking about her struggles with depression in 2019. Her emotional state was a result of not just the fear of failure but also the extreme strain she put on her body to stay inside her weight class.
It was a long-running battle and despite her best efforts, things came undone in Paris.
On her return, she was feted by her village and the khap panchayats from nearby hamlets got together to present her with a gold medal of their own. She declared it was more significant than the one she was fighting for in Paris.
But Vinesh also admitted that the pain of missing an Olympic medal will last long.
She is nonetheless confident that the love from her community would help her heal from the most frustrating chapter in her never-ending tale of struggles.
In this journey, she has had the support of her husband and fellow wrestler Somveer Rathee, who was there with her in Paris too.
