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 hours in the sun, rain and cold of Jantar Mantar in New Delhi as she had protested the patriarchy that still rules the minds and habits of India. It was primal, poetic, terrifyingly beautiful to watch, like a rebirth that you'd never expect. Maybe India's true Olympics began on Monday, its real story – away from the cynosure -- on Mat B of the makeshift wrestling arena of the sprawling Champs de Mars Arena, and a Japanese world No 1 who till now didn't know the meaning of losing, left shocked and tearful like some odd tangent on the yellow circumference of the area.
Vinesh had, back against the wall but still lurking, lashed out at the last, opportune moment, with venom and patience of an old-timer to topple – literally -- an opponent who was 82-0 going into this bout, and 2-0 ahead at the death. That her rival was defending Olympic champion – having won gold in her home Games in Tokyo without dropping a point – that she was world No 1 and that she had never lost to a non-Japanese rival, would soon all be things of the past. Then, Phoghat was going to change her corner, and her approach - more assertive here than the game of wrestling chess in the first -- to outlast a Ukrainian challenge.
If it was doing something for her, it would prove cathartic for the handful of Indians watching, waiting. One would be lying if there wasn't a little lump in the throat, a little sting felt in the eye when she mouthed, without looking up, a "Thank you, sir," to the "Super, super show, Vinesh!" as she stomped past - so tiny and stodgy in her singlet but so unbelievably huge that you'd automatically cower in her presence. Vinesh famously doesn't talk anymore, on Monday she was half-nodding your fervent, genuine hat-tip to her.
How the tables have turned. In a new weight category after relinquishing her 53-kg spot to Antim Panghal , it was expected that the unseeded Vinesh would resort to the luck of the repechage after being drawn in the opener against Yui. Yui, who went by an unreal 82-0 record, or 94-0, if you believe a currently disbelieving Japanese media contingent here, now pins her hopes on the Indian going all the way in the hope to salvage some of the pride that took a serious dent today.
If Vinesh had to hustle with to quieten Oksana Livach, the plucky Ukrainian in the quarterfinal, it was a charge of such astonishing power and intent with less than 18 seconds remaining in the opening bout, after doing nothing but sit back and wait initial phases, that destroyed Yui. The Japanese sat immobile, suitably dazed while at the other end, in another orbit, a sprawled Vinesh bawling away only to herself, her shaking body visible to the entire arena. Did a festive world gathered in sunny Paris know what her fight, those tears, really was all about? Did it all come down only to a possible medal in the tally? If so, then how much of it would be India's and how much her own, only her own? Because when Vinesh cried on the streets of the capital in her fight for justice, she was alone.
Vinesh was an outsider in this Indian Olympic contingent which has been inundated by wishes for success and buoyed by happy, hopeful corporate and political support. No one touched her with a barge pole, despite her undeniable credentials as she was forever defined by those famous weeks of protests. While the rest in India's blue – and the smattering of saffron – here would happily post their hopes and dreams ahead of these Paris Games, her last few posts on X involved invoking the new sports minister for help for a visa for her brother, or for herself, a speedy Schengen intervention for her final training camp in Spain.
Even when she landed here, there was hardly any mention of Vinesh Phogat in the suddenly slick-with-social-media large Indian camp. Now, as a suddenly unfamiliar destiny, a self-hewn one, awaits her, as she wrestles her way to be on the threshold of an Olympic medal that was meant for every other Indian here at Paris but her, will a corporate and political establishment cravenly make a beeline for her, appropriate her as one of their own? Will those phone calls at prime time be made? More importantly, will Vinesh Phogat answer?.
