It was only recently that PM Narendra Modi praised wrestler Vinesh Phogat's great performance in the Paris Olympics. She created history and became the very first Indian woman wrestler to ever find her way into the finals.
PM Modi hosted a meeting at his residence, 7 Lok Kalyan Marg, on the eve of Independence Day to meet the Indian athletes and medalists returned from the Paris Olympics. While interacting with PM Modi, he underscored Vinesh's achievement, saying, "Vinesh's achievement of reaching the finals in wrestling as the first Indian woman is such a proud moment for all of us."
Despite the historic feat, Vinesh's Olympic journey ended on a poor note when she was ruled out of the women's 50 kg gold medal match for being marginally above the weight limit on the day of final.
Following that setback, Vinesh announced her retirement from wrestling in a social media post.
That makes for quite an impressive career for the Haryana wrestler: three Commonwealth Games gold medals, two World Championships bronze medals, and one Asian Games gold medal. Added to this list has been the 2021 Asian Championship title.
Vinesh challenged her Olympic disqualification with CAS, asking for a joint silver medal in the 50 kg weight category. Her appeal was dismissed by the CAS Ad-Hoc Division, ruling out her chances of winning an Olympic medal.
They happened to participate in a total of 16 different sports: archery, athletics, badminton, boxing, equestrian, golf, field hockey, judo, rowing, sailing, shooting, swimming, wrestling, table tennis, and tennis—with the Indian contingent that sent 117 athletes. India won a total of six medals—one silver and five bronze. It was a close call for the nation to improve on its last outing performance at the rescheduled 2021 Tokyo Olympics, which had won seven medals, made up of 1 gold, 2 silver, and 4 bronze, to place 48th.
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