Antim Panghal’s starvation route ahead of Olympic bout after Vinesh incident

The cruel turn of events for Vinesh Phogat at the Paris Olympics has left the Indian camp panic-stricken. Earlier on Friday, Aman Sehrawat, who won bronze for India in the men’s 57kg category, the nation’s first medal in wrestling in Paris, lost close to five kilos in just 10 hours before his medal bout. Meanwhile, a fresh report revealed that Antim Panghal took a severe route to pass the weigh-in ahead of her opening bout.
Panghal was one of India’s medal prospects in wrestling, having made the cut for the Paris Games after Vinesh, who is the nation’s usual candidate in the women’s 53kg freestyle category, missed the World Championship amid his protest against the former Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief. However, on her Olympic debut, Panghal incurred a humiliating 0-10 loss against Turkey’s Zeynep Yetgil in her opener on Wednesday.
On Saturday, TOI unearthed that Panghal had starved herself for 48 hours straight to make the weigh-in cut on the morning of the preliminary round of the competition. She did not take any food and only had a minimum amount of water, thus leaving her body weak and dehydrated.
Panghal had found herself overweight for the weigh-in. While she did travel to Paris with her dietician, sister Nisha, since the latter was not officially part of the Indian contingent, she was not allowed inside the Olympic village, leaving Panghal to manage matters on her own. She resolved to starving for two days straight, thus leaving her without an ounce of energy for the opening bout.
It was earlier that day that Vinesh was disqualified after being found overweight during the weigh-in ahead of the women’s 50kg freestyle final. The 29-year-old from Harayana, who on Tuesday became the first Indian woman wrestler to reach the final at an Olympics, was 100 grams over the permissible limit and hence disqualified from the final and denied any medal.
Although a heartbroken Vinesh announced her retirement from the sport shortly after, she later appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), with the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) by her side, for a joint silver medal. Vinesh, who virtually attended the meeting, where her side of the argument was presented by senior counsels Harish Salve and Vidushpat Singhania, now awaits the decision from the CAS.