‘Fire never left’: Vinesh Phogat says she’s back

NEW DELHI: Vinesh Phogat is ready for another battle. This time, not with the wrestling federation but with her mind, body and advancing age. Once the poster girl of Indian women’s wrestling, Vinesh on Friday surprised the sports fraternity by announcing an emotional comeback to the mat.

At 31 and with a six-month-old son to care for, the three-time Olympian acknowledged that the path to an elusive Olympic medal at the Los Angeles 2028 will not be easy and that she must effectively start from scratch.

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In a heartfelt message on X, Vinesh declared that “the fire never left” and that she is “stepping back toward LA ’28 with a heart that’s unafraid and a spirit that refuses to bow”.

In August last year, Vinesh had announced she was retiring. It was a day after she was famously disqualified from the 50kg finals at the Paris Games for being 100gms overweight.

The episode split the Indian sports fandom down the middle. Those who sympathized with her and supported her in the fight against Wrestling Federation of India over allegations of sexual harassment lamented a lost historic gold, one that would have silenced detractors. Others flayed her for the disqualification. Reflecting on her time away, she wrote: “People kept asking if Paris was the end. I didn’t have an answer. I needed to step away from the mat, from the pressure, from the expectations, even from my own ambitions.

“I took time to understand the weight of my journey, the versions of me the world never saw. And somewhere in that reflection, I found the truth; I still love this sport. I still want to compete.

“In that silence, I found something I’d forgotten ‘the fire never left’. It was only buried under exhaustion and noise. The discipline, the routine, the fight... it’s in my system. No matter how far I walked away, a part of me stayed on the mat. So here I am, stepping back toward LA28 with a heart that’s unafraid and a spirit that refuses to bow. And this time, I’m not walking alone. My son is joining my team, my biggest motivation, my little cheerleader on this road to the LA Olympics,” she concluded the note.

Vinesh was blessed with a baby boy — ‘Kridhav’ — on July 1 this year. She is married to fellow wrestler Somvir Rathee and the couple tied the knot in Dec 2018.

Meanwhile, in her constituency Julana, not all are happy with Vinesh’s decision to return to the mat. They claimed she has been inactive since becoming an MLA, according to locals, she did not attend public events or community programmes and did not actively raise public issues in the assembly. (Inputs by Vijender Kumar).


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