“Committed Betrayal”: Vinesh’s World Champion Olympic Rival Gets Emotional
Vinesh Phogat’s disqualification from the women’s 50kg wrestling final at Paris Olympics 2024 came as a massive heart-break for Indian sports fans. However, before that, Vinesh’s bouts sent India into euphoria. She pulled off the biggest upset at the Paris Games by outwitting hitherto invincible Yui Susaki with a perfectly planned strategy before edging past Ukraine’s Oksana Livach to storm into the women’s 50kg semifinal.
The Tokyo Games gold medallist and four-time World Champion (2017, 2018, 2022, 2023) Susaki had not lost any of her 82 bouts in her international career but the Japanese top seed hardly had an idea as to what was about to hit her in the opener which she lost 2-3 to Vinesh Phogat.
Later, as Vinesh entered the final, Yui Susaki got a chance in the repechage and won the bronze. But Susaki has now said she committed ‘a betrayal’ for not winning the gold.
“I had the honour of winning the bronze medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics! First of all, thank you so much for all your support. It has really helped me out! I wanted to see my family, teammates, and fans who have fought with me for the past three years to win the gold medal, but I couldn’t do it, and I’m so sorry and frustrated that I committed a betrayal,” Susaki wrote in a note that was shared by United World Wrestling.
Operation comeback begins for Yui SUSAKI .#roadtoparis2024 | #wrestleparis | #wrestlingparis | #PathtoParis | #wrestling | #paris2024 pic.twitter.com/mHEgUsfQON
— United World Wrestling (@wrestling) August 12, 2024
“Despite the loss, encouraging words from all over the world and worlds that they still believe in me and will continue to support me. I wasn’t able to reply, but I read every message, one by one, and I can’t measure how much it touched my heart, how much it saved my heart, and how much it made me want to keep moving forward. Thank you so much! As long as there are people who still support me and believe in me, I am strongly willing to keep going hard again to achieve my goal of becoming an Olympic champion.”
With PTI inputs