Wrestler Vinesh Phogat entered the finals of the Olympic Games in wrestling. Her historic achievement has been made at the end of a tough year of protesting against scenes of sexual harassment within the association’s body.
Phogat’s journey to the Olympic final has been painted with all sorts of troubles. She also joined Sakshi Malik and other wrestlers in demonstrating in Delhi against the alleged sexual harassment of female wrestlers by the former WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.
It will be a pertinent sort of victory that Phogat had long waited for to come out of the image of a loser, and her video of a post from March 2024 has gone viral. The post, which has now gone viral, reads; “Dear haters, I have so much more for you to be mad at me, Just be patient.”
While Phogat and the other wrestlers were grappling with complaints of some sections of the internet and even police detention, they did not lose sight of the objectives for justice. Their protest received much more attention as well as support, and the athletes even went to Haridwar to dump the medals into the Ganga; many were prevented by farmers’ leader Naresh Tikait.
Thus, Paris Olympics victory of Phogat shows her never giving up spirit. In the semifinals she was too powerful for Cuba’s Yusneylis Guzman Lopez, winning 5-0 which ensured her at least a silver medal.
