Vinesh Phogat of India reacts after winning the match against Yui Susaki of Japan. (Reuters)
We have to stand up again. Till now, Vinesh and all of us have fought every situation and will continue to do so. That’s what I told Vinesh on the phone today after she missed the weight. While I am yet to meet her later in the evening, I know she is someone, who won’t be lamenting the fact that she missed the Olympic medal. She would be only thinking, what’s next for her now and how many more trials will god put her through for her to rise again.
For us Phogat family, including my mother Premlata, this day is just like death of a dream. But then it’s also like rising like a phoenix from the ashes for Vinesh. From the day we lost our father, we have been fighting to survive. It’s like god has written the tagline of ‘Sangarsh karna hi hai ‘on our foreheads and that’s what Vinesh has been doing all her life. That was her motto when she stepped for the first time on the mud in the akhada and when she set foot on the wrestling mat in her first Olympics at Rio. When she suffered the injury in Rio to whatever happened at Tokyo, we were looking to rewrite history at Paris.
But then look at fate. We have reached at the same spot in destiny in Paris Olympics, where we had started our Olympic dream in 2016. But I think Vinesh would be happy that without winning the Olympics medal, she has given the girls of this country something which they needed the most. And that is the courage to stand against oppression and to stand against the wrongs and the system. And that’s what I think, Vinesh has earned from Paris Olympics. The moral courage to stand up against the wrong and to give that power to each girl of this country to stand against the wrong will be something which Vinesh would like to be remembered for her whole life, medal or no medal.
Winning an Olympic medal still remains Vinesh’s dream and nobody can stop her from seeing that dream again. Medal or no medal, nobody can snatch this from Vinesh that she fought against all odds including the system and raised her voice when it mattered and this will inspire generations to come.
In today’s loss is her win too. Players will win Olympic medals for India in future and there will be celebrations too. But Vinesh will be going from Paris with her head held high and with her name on top of the fight she put and what she brings for the women of this country from Paris. A hope to fight against anything in life and a wish to return again and win the Olympic gold for India.
Last night, while we all were celebrating the medal here in Paris, Vinesh’s only focus was the gold medal. That was the reason she did not sleep whole night and was constantly trying to lose the weight with her team. That’s something she has done in her wrestling career and we all were confident that she would achieve that. Not for a single moment, she thought that she would miss the weight or forfeit with injury. Why would she need that if her target was winning the gold medal for India and to see the Indian flag rise at Paris Olympics?
I was listening to the Sports Minister’s address in the Parliament talking about how much money was spent on athletes. I just wanted to ask one thing. One can spend any amount of money on the athletes but can they teach the athlete how to fight? That’s something found in the athlete’s spirit and no one else but the athlete herself can propel that spirit.
Physically Vinesh is healing at the clinic in the Olympics village and mentally too, she is somebody who will not carry this baggage of missing on the Olympic medal. As a kid, she would listen to the song “Haste Haste Kat Jaye Raste, Zindagi yun hi chalti rahe, Khushi mile ya gham, badlenge na hum” Toh yeh aaj ka loss kaise badal dega Vinesh ko (So how can today’s loss change Vinesh?).
Wherever life takes us, we have to follow that. But we will go with a fight. We had the Olympic medal in our destiny last night and today we have none. But then nothing can stop Vinesh from starting this dream once again.
(These views were expressed by Harvinder Phogat, elder brother of Vinesh Phogat, who is in Paris. He spoke with Nitin Sharma.)
