Vinesh Phogat breaks silence on Paris Olympics 2024 disqualification: ‘It haunts me…’

Indian wrestler Vinesh Phogat in her first reaction to the Paris Olympics disqualification said that ‘my wish was to fly high the Indian flag at this Olympics’ to ‘reprimand what the flag went through and what wrestling went through’. She further said that she has much more say “but words will never be enough and maybe I will speak again when the time feels right.”

Here's what she said:

The Indian grappler took to X (previously Twitter) to say, “...During the wrestlers protest I was fighting hard to protect the sanctity of women in India, the sanctity and values of our Indian flag. But when I look at the pictures of me with the Indian flag from 28th May 2023, it haunts me. It was my wish to have the Indian flag fly high this Olympics, to have a picture of the Indian flag with me that truly represents it's value and restores it's sanctity. I felt that by doing this it will correctly reprimand what the flag went through and what wrestling went through. I really was hoping to show that to my fellow Indians.”

“There is so much more to say and so much more to tell but words will never be enough and maybe I will speak again when the time feels right. On the night of 6th August and the morning of 7th August, all I want to say is that we did not give up, our efforts did not stop, and we did not surrender but the clock stopped and the time was not fair. So was my fate. To my team, my fellow Indians and my family, it feels like the goal that we were working towards and what we had planned to achieve is unfinished, that something might always remain missing, and that things might never be the same again,” Phogat also said.

Maybe under different circumstances, I could see myself playing till 2032, because the fight in me and wrestling in me will always be there. I can't predict what the future holds for me, and what awaits me in this journey next, but I am sure that I will continue to fight always for what I believe in and for the right thing, she further says