Vinesh Phogat felt the burden of 100 grams chasing gold in the 50kg wrestling. She tried everything. From burpees, skipping, jogging, sauna, cutting hair and even drawing blood from her veins. But nothing worked in her favour and Vinesh was eventually disqualified.
Aman Sehrawat, the lone male wrestler in the Indian contingent who won a
bronze medal in the 57kg category defeating Puerto Rico’s Darian Cruz, lost 5kg in 10 hours. Aman weighed 62kg after he lost to Japan’s Rei Higuchi in the semi-final on Thursday.
Sehrawat and coaches Jagmander Singh and Virender Dahiya were racing against time to make the wrestler perfect for Friday morning’s weigh-in at 7am. So what did they do?
Everything.
Wrestling on the mat, multiple sessions of sauna, running on the treadmill for more than one hour... That continued till early morning and once Aman weighed 56.9 on the scale there was huge relief. The impossible mission was accomplished.
“It was tough for me. I had to lose 5kg. I had three sessions on the mat... I was weighing 62kg after the semi-final loss. I knew only practice would not help me to lose the weight. I forgot everything about Friday’s match. The only target was to shed weight,” Sehrawat revealed.
Coach Dahiya, who was also acting as the interpreter for the Haryana-born wrestler who is also India’s youngest Olympics medal winner, detailed the ordeal.
“We kept checking his weight every hour. We didn’t sleep the whole night. We took him to the gym at 12.30am to ensure he weighs 200gm less than 57kg. Not more than that.
“We also kept in mind that he had to stay hydrated. We know what Aman did to get this medal.
“Weight cutting is routine. It’s normal for us but there was tension. A lot of tension in fact after what happened the other day with Vinesh. She lost a sure gold medal. We could not let slip another one,” Dahiya said.
In the quest for a podium finish though, did Aman’s team flirt with danger?
“He was plain lucky and also his team managed slightly better. But making an
athlete lose 4-5kg suddenly in less than 12 hours is not a safe tactic. That is around
7-10 per cent of his body weight. Before bouts there shouldn’t be body weight loss of more than 2.5 to three per cent for safety. Anything could have happened,” Priyanka Lahiri, a Bengaluru-based sports nutritionist, said.
So why do male athletes find it easier than women?
“It’s physiological. Men have more lean muscle mass compared to women. That helps to shed weight faster. Male testosterone is much higher and the metabolism rate is faster,” Ramji Srinivasan, the former strength and conditioning coach of the Indian national cricket team, told The Telegraph from Chennai on Saturday.
“The most important is resting energy expenditure. The REE consists of basal metabolic rate, the thermic effect of food and spontaneous physical activity. Men have better REE than women. So while Vinesh fell short by 100gm, Sehrawat managed to reduce 5kg over the more or less same timespan,” he added.
“Higher metabolic rate and calorie deficit also help men to lose weight at a shorter notice. More lean muscle mass means faster metabolism. Men consume more calories and also heavier calorie deficit are the physiological advantages men enjoy over women,” Ramji pointed out.
Sehrawat said he can feast now on sweets. “When I was weight-cutting, I left all the sweets that I love. Now I want to eat them.”
Well, after giving India its fourth bronze in Paris, he can have loads of sweets.
