File photo by Vinesh Phogat© ANI Photo
While India awaits the outcome of wrestler Vinesh Phogat’s trial at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), United World Wrestling President Nenad Lalovic has shared some important insights on the entire weight controversy. In an exclusive interview with NDTV, Lalovic expressed sympathy for the entire incident that led to Vinesh’s disqualification from the Paris Olympics on the morning of her gold medal match. Vinesh was said to have weighed just 100g over the 50kg mark that she needed to hit to compete in the final. Yet, she should have been disqualified.
Vinesh has decided to appeal to CAS, the outcome of which is still awaited, but the UWW representative believes the outcome will not make much of a difference as the wrestling body simply followed the rules already in place.
“I am truly sorry for what happened, but no matter how big your country is, an athlete is an athlete. This weigh-in was public, everyone saw what happened. We all saw what happened, how can we allow someone to compete? We have no choice but to follow our rules,” Lalovic told NDTV.
“We put that rule in place to look after the health of the athletes. They had to follow the weight rules to compete. We might tweak the rules a little bit, but we’re not going to change them. We get advice and help from the medical committee. They’re absolutely against any changes,” he added, ruling out any major overhaul of the weight rules.
In the women’s 50kg freestyle wrestling event, gold, silver and bronze medals have already been awarded, but Vinesh appealed to be awarded a joint silver medal as she had passed the weigh-in and made it to the final.
There is no way to give a second silver coin, but Vinesh and those fighting for her have not given up hope.
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