Indian wrestler Antim Panghal has refuted the reports that either she or her sister was detained by Paris police on Wednesday for allegedly misusing her accreditation to get inside the Olympic Village. Addressing media reports of her sister getting arrested for impersonating her and misusing her accreditation, Antim clarified the situation in a video statement on Thursday.
Antim, who lost to Turkey's Zeynep Yetgh 0-10 in the women’s 53kg wrestling category on Wednesday, became ill afterward. She left the Olympic Village to join her sister at their hotel. “I want to clarify that the reports about my sister or me being detained by police in Paris are false, nothing of this sort happened. Yesterday, I fell extremely sick after losing the bout and had a high fever. So my sister, who was staying in a hotel asked me to come there. I took permission from my coach, which he allowed," said Antim in a video statement on Thursday.
"After coming to the hotel, I needed my belongings, which were at the Olympic Village. But as I was not feeling well I slept and my sister took my accreditation card and went to the Village," she added.
“Upon reaching there she said that this is my sister’s accreditation card and she is unwell, so can I collect her belongings from the Games Village? The officials took the accreditation card and took her to the police station for verification. I was not taken to the police station, only my sister went. And that too just to verify the accreditation, following which she was asked to go and was handed over the accreditation card," the wrestler said.
“They are also saying that the coach fought with a cab driver. This didn’t happen at all, when I lost the bout, even the coach was extremely upset. While I came to the hotel, he stayed at the Village, and we booked a cab for him till the hotel.
“The problem escalated due to the language barrier. After reaching the hotel, the coaches didn't have enough Euros and informed the cab driver to allow them to go to the room and bring it. However, both parties had problems understanding each other and in the meantime, one of the coaches came up to the room. It took him almost five minutes to return with Euro, so due to this there was a fight between the coaches and the cab driver," Antim concluded.
"IOA refutes reports that a ban has been imposed on wrestler Antim. It requests media persons to please check with the IOA leadership before posting such reports," IOA wrote on X.
Previously, the IOA had decided to return Antim and her support staff to India.
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