Players from around the world are heading to the Japanese city of Tokyo. Luckily this time a number of athletes from India are taking part in various Olympic competitions. One of these players is female wrestler Vinesh Phogat . The world's biggest sports festival, the Olympics, is about to begin in a matter of days. There was a time when it was a big dream for Indian athletes to qualify for the Olympics.
Some of India's medal contenders include Vinesh. Vinesh will compete in the 53 kg category from India. A total of four Indian women wrestlers are to compete in the Olympics. Departing from Haryana, which was the ground of Kurukshetra in the Mahabharata period, Vinesh is now to play the wrestling ring in Tokyo.
Success in 2016 was a bit shaky (Vinesh Phogat)
The 2016 Olympics were held in Rio, Brazil. Vinesh qualified for it. In this, Vinesh managed to reach the quarter finals. He then lost to Sun Yuhan of China, who came down to play with a knee injury. Had he not been injured, he would have won the medal.
Out of the country's population of 140 crore, very few people get to go to the Olympics. Vinesh is a member of the lucky team. So his dream is to get a medal and come back at any cost.
- Born: August 25, 1994 (Balali, Haryana)
- Father - Rajpalsinh Fogat
- Mother-love Fogat
- The wrestler Vinesh plays is called a freestyle wrestler in the language of sports.
- Height -160 cm (one and a half feet)
- Weight - 55 kg
- First international match - Asian Wrestling Championship in 2013
- Coach, Jupiter - Mahavir Singh Fogat
- Vinesh is scheduled to wrestle on August 25 in Tokyo.
- For wrestling training, his elder Bapuji (Tauji) used to get up at 3:30 in the morning and do wrestling till 7-8 in the morning.
- Vinesh loves to watch movies and listen to music if she gets time from wrestling. He is a fan of film stars Ranveer, Akshay Kumar, Kangana and Deepika.
- He is also very fond of cooking and identifies himself as a foodie. He says that everything that can be tested before death is to taste.
Medal
- Won a gold medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
- He was given the Arjuna Award in 2016 and had to come in a wheelchair to accept the award.
- In 2018, she became the first woman to win a gold medal in the Asian Games.
- He also won a gold medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. She is the first Asian woman to win a gold medal in both the Commonwealth and Asiad.
- In 2018, he has received the honor of Padma Shri.
- In 2020, he has been given the Khel Ratna award.
Training from the family
Vinesh's elder Bapuji Mahavir Fogat is also a wrestler so it can be said that Pahelwani runs in his blood. Mahavir Fogat's two daughters Geeta and Babita Fogat are also wrestlers. The countrymen know him to some extent because of the riot film. But Mahavir Fogat started inculcating the rites of becoming a wrestler from an early age.
Days of struggle
It is difficult to imagine young women in India playing wrestling. So what would the situation be like 20-25 years ago? At that time no one dreamed that a woman could wrestle. Even in a state like Haryana, which prefers masculinity and considers the Khap Panchayat to be the ultimate authority, no connection was possible between wrestlers and women athletes.
Fogat's record
| World Championship | ||
|---|---|---|
| Bronze | 2019 Nur-Sultan | 53 kg |
| Commonwealth Games | ||
| Gold | 2014 Glasgow | 48 kg |
| Gold | 2018 Gold Coast | 50 kg |
| Asian Games | ||
| Gold | 2018 Jakarta | 50 kg |
| Bronze | 2014 Incheon | 48 kg |
| Asian Championships | ||
| Gold | 2021 Almaty | 53 kg |
| Silver | 2015 Doha | 48 kg |
| Silver | 2017 New Delhi | 55 kg |
| Silver | 2018 Bishkek | 50 kg |
| Bronze | 2013 New Delhi | 51 kg |
| Bronze | 2016 Bangkok | 53 kg |
| Bronze | 2019 Xi'an | 53 kg |
| Bronze | 2020 New Delhi | 53 kg |
| Youth Wrestling Championship | ||
| Silver | 2013 Johannesburg | 51 kg |
But at the same time Vinesh also started practicing wrestling like the boys in the village. At that time, the village-society criticized Mahavir Fogat a lot, but without listening to the words of the village, Mahavir focused only on his goal. Initially it was easy and then gradually it started with rigorous training. Vinesh's life at that time was nothing but wrestling. Practicing, going to school, eating, sleeping and training again the next day.
Her father was killed when Vinesh was young. So the mother raised him alone. After her father's death, the whole village pressured her mother to marry Vinesh. But the mother preferred her daughter's happiness to the society.
What is the Olympics?
At that time, not everyone in Vinesh's village knew what the Olympics were. Vinesh's mother asks if the Olympics are something, where to find them? All those struggles lasted until adolescence. Tauji's clear command was that if you want to go to the Olympics, training-eating-drinking-sleeping is not to give importance to anything in life except four. So there was no holiday or weekend like luxury for Vinesh for years.
The first success
Vinesh's first success came at the age of 19 when she won a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games. It was a significant event for a woman wrestler from India to enter the global arena. Vinesh won a gold medal at the 2018 Asiad in Jakarta, Indonesia. It was the first gold medal Vinesh won at the Asian Championships. He had earlier won three bronze and four silver medals in the event. So the expectation of a medal from him in Tokyo is not in vain. He also won a gold medal in the competition held in Rome in 2020.
Vinesh got married but after winning a medal in the 2018 Asian Games. Wrestler Somveer Rathi and Vinesh then fell in love and got married in December 2018. Somvir is also a two-time gold medalist in the National Championships. The two have known each other since 2011, when they worked for Indian Railways.
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