What Vinesh Phogat Told Court On Reason Behind Increased Weight At Olympics

Entire India awaits the Court of Arbitration (CAS) verdict on wrestler Vinesh Phogat’s joint silver medal plea. Vinesh, who was disqualified before her final in the Women’s Freestyle 50k wrestling bout, was weighing 100 grams over the 50kg limit. As the arguments continue in front of the CAS, Vinesh has reportedly sighted the tight schedule between her bout as well as the distance between Athletes’ Village and the competition arena as the reason behind her failure to make the weight cut.

According to a report in the Indian Express, the counsel for Phogat highlighted the distance between Champ de Mars Arena, the venue for the wrestling competition, and the Athletes Village as a contributing factor to her failure in making the cut at the scheduled weigh-in. The Indian wrestler’s counsel also said that the tight schedule between bouts didn’t allow her enough time to reduce her weight, which had touched the 52.7 kg mark after the first day of her competition.

The counsel further argued that Vinesh didn’t get any competitive advantage with the extra 100g she had on the second morning.

‘The excess of 100g is extremely negligible (representing around 0.1 to 0.2 percent of the athlete’s weight) and can easily be caused by the bloating of a human body during summer weather, as the heat makes the human body retain more water, scientifically for survival purposes. It can also be due to muscle mass increase as the athlete competed three times on the same day. It can also be caused by the food consumption of the athlete after the competitions to sustain her health and integrity for the demanding competitions,” Phogat’s counsel asserted, as per the paper

An argument over the application of the principle of proportionality has also been made.

‘There would be a manifest disproportion between the level of excess (which excludes any attempt at fraud or manipulation of the athlete) and the irreversible consequences that would result from her non-participation in the finals in addition to the deprivation of her silver medal that was acquired by hard work,’ the report stated.

Vinesh’s counsel also called for the need to keep the athlete’s health over other considerations.