Tokyo Olympics - 'I’m truly broken': Vinesh Phogat breaks silence after WFI suspension

Vinesh Phogat was temporarily suspended by the Wrestling Federation of India for her alleged indisciplineduring Tokyo Olympics 2020. As per the federation, she did not wear the name of the official sponsor of the Indian team and also refused to stay along with the Indian contingent.

The federation had given a notice to Vinesh on three counts and gave her time until August 16 to answer the notice. However, the wrestler broke her silence on the controversy and revealed her struggles during the Games and also gave her reason on why she decided to stay away from the team.

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Phogat said that the real reason why she did not stay with the team was because of the risk of the coronavirus. She said that she did not want to risk her teammates with the virus and that is the reason she wanted to stay away from them for 2-3 days.

“When these things have happened, why will I stay with the Indian team? They were tested everyday for seven days. I wasn’t. What if I got it on the flight and infected them? I was, in fact, thinking about them and wanted to stay away for 2-3 days to be sure that they were not at risk. What’s the big deal? After 2-3 days I was going to join them and even began training with Seema. So there’s no question of me not being a team-player," she wrote in her tell-all piece to Indian Express.

Last year, Phogat contracted the dreaded virus twice. The first time being August 2020, since then she has been unable to digest protein and the second time was when she returned from Asian Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan in April.

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The federation had accused Vinesh's Hungarian coach of misusing the funds given to training the wrestler by the Indian government.

Brij Bhushan Saran Singh, president of the Wrestling Federation of India had claimed: “Vinesh trained in Hungary for two years. Her coach Woller Akos also comes from Hungary. He has fooled us with his training methods. He trained his wife Mariana Sustin and Vinesh together in Hungary. His wife also qualified but lost in the first round. Therefore, it is possible that he used the grant money from the Government of India for his wife’s training."

Phogat defended her coach by saying: “And which team did I not train with? No one asked me what I did or who I was with. If you were really expecting a gold, then shouldn’t my long term physio Purnima have been there? (My coach) Woller travelled with me, to help me, stayed with me in Lucknow when his one-year-old son was in Budapest. When COVID hit, he continued training and motivated me when the Olympics was postponed. He did not care about his personal life. How can you blame that person?"

Vinesh also revealed Woller's reaction when she crashed out of the Tokyo Olympics.

“Woller did everything. He didn’t stop crying when I lost. His wife didn’t stop crying. She’s a 4-time Olympian, and was only of help to my training being from a higher weight category. I’ve won these last three years with the same support staff," she said.

Vinesh also revealed her broken state ever since crashing out of the Tokyo Olympics. She said: “I slept once since I reached home. I slept for two hours on the flight and sometimes in the Village. There, I would walk alone and drink coffee. I was alone. When the sun would rise, I felt sleepy."

“I never said make me a contender for gold. I am wrestling for myself and I was the first to feel awful after losing, but let me do it. Leave me alone."

“I don’t know when I will return (to the mat). Maybe I won’t. I feel I was better off with that broken leg. I had something to correct. Now my body is not broken, but I’m truly broken," she concluded.