Legendary India hockey player PR Sreejesh said the Olympic silver medal was snatched from Vinesh Phogat in the women’s 50kg wrestling. Vinesh, who made history by becoming the first Indian female wrestler to reach the Olympic final and assure at least a silver medal, was disqualified from the competition and stripped of a podium finish after she weighed 100gms more than the permissible limit on the morning of her gold-medal bout.
Vinesh appealed for a joint silver at the Court of Arbitration for Sports. The hearing took place on August 9 but the CAS verdict has yet to come. It was deferred twice. The next update is set to come on August 16.
Sreejesh, who retired as one of the most successful hockey goalkeepers of the country after winning bronze at the Paris Games, said he doesn’t know what he would have done if he was in Vinesh’s place.
“There are two views, one being an athlete she deserves a medal, getting into the final, they snatched it from her, silver for sure. She was strong. If I was in her situation, I don’t what I would have done,” Sreejesh said at an interaction with PTI.
The great wall of India as he is so often referred as, Sreejesh said he met Vinesh on the day of India’s bronze-medal match against Spain.
“The next day before our bronze medal match I met her and she said ‘Bhai good luck, play well’. I felt like she was hiding her pain with that smile. She is a real fighter.” Sreejesh, 36, who won back-to-back Olympic bronze medals in his glorious 18-year-old career, however, felt Vinesh’s case should be a lesson for all Indian athletes.
“The second part is just different because you have Olympic rules and the Indian athletes know what is happening there and they should be ready for that. They shouldn’t give any chance to the federation, to the organising committee, to the International Olympic Committee (OC).
“So it should be a lesson for everyone. When you are prepared for that you have to be strict with rules and regulations,” he said.He cited the case of Amit Rohidas, who was banned for lifting the stick during the quarter-final against Great Britain where India played with 10 men for 42 minutes.
“Amit Rohidas in the quarterfinal is a case. The rule states that you can’t raise your stick to the backward direction, you can’t lift it that way because intentionally you are hitting someone and it’s a red card and what happened to us we played the semifinal with 15 players and we suffered. So the rules are made to make the game beautiful, controlled.”
“I am keeping my fingers crossed. Being an athlete, I just wish well for her. The way she worked hard, we know what she had been through last one year and from there she is coming back, qualifying for Olympics final, that is answer for all. I really felt bad for her, it’s a tough situation,” Sreejesh said.