PARIS: Chastised, sullied, derided – outnumbered and wrestled to the ground by the police of her capital city -- for daring to stand up against sexual harassment of the wrestling establishment, Vinesh Phogat did the unthinkable here in Paris. Twice she stomped off the mats, into the tunnel to the athletes’ area, in some strange tunnel vision of her own, head bowed, shutting off the world in a quiet seethe that she has taken as an invisible cloak, once pretty, sunny-faced now hard-jawed with a permanent sullennnes, a forever angry woman defeated with the world and its injustices, past caring -- that haircut like an ill-fitting wig picked in a hurry – and slowly losing the strength and will to fight back. Top Picks For You 'Unreal': Neeraj Chopra praises Vinesh Phogat's victory over Yui Susaki 'Vinesh Phogat opponent only used to deal in golds.
..': Internet reacts as she becomes first Indian female wrestler to qualify for Olympic semifinal But in truth, Vinesh was all walking defiance on Monday.
Ignored and shunned back home to unseeded, unceremoniously unheralded here, Vinesh was suddenly queen of the mat, storming out of simply nowhere into the semifinals and being within swiping distance of a medal in the 50-kg women’s freestyle wrestling. She meets Cuban Yusneylis Guzman Lopez for a place in a final that would carry a million more overtones than just a gold medal match. A strange fire burnt within her today.
Maybe, no, surely, she has been burnished by sitting for h.