Weight management in women’s wrestling is a tricky task. Vinesh Phogat tried her best but in the end, the weighing machine showed she was a little more than 100 grams over 50kg, the category she was fighting in.
Vinesh likes to contest in the 53kg group — she was the 2022 world champion. Ahead of the Paris Olympics, she took a huge risk by dropping to the unfamiliar 50kg category for a place in the Games squad. She won three bouts on Tuesday to spark a billion dreams that a gold could be around the corner on Wednesday.
But a 100 grams came in between.
“It’s a catch-22 situation. You starve to maintain weight and after the weigh-in replenish yourself so that you have the strength to fight your opponent. And then again you stop intake of water and any sort of nutritionary food for the scales to show all is clear. It’s not an easy job,” Priyanka Lahiri, a Bengaluru-based sports nutritionist, told The Telegraph on Wednesday.
The normal weight of the 29-year-old Vinesh is between 56 and 57kg, so grappling in the 50kg was a tall ask.
“Maybe on Tuesday when she had the weigh-in before the first set of knockout matches, Vinesh was touching the 50kg mark. The replenishments helped her to sustain through the three rounds of bouts and the weight thus gained could not be reduced. Waterweight fluctuations can happen for multiple reasons. In such a tough situation, even 100 millilitres of extra fluid can alter the body weight,” Lahiri added.
Agreed Mia Lahnee Ramos Aquino, the 53kg wrestler from Guam. “It’s not at all easy,” she said in the mixed zone of the Champ de Mars Arena. “Once I had to sit in the sauna for nine hours.”
Boxer Nikhat Zareen recently revealed after her defeat in the 50kg category that she did not take either food or water for two days to stay within the weight limit.
For Vinesh, who fought in the 53kg for years, it might have been an impossible job. The body gets used to a certain weight and then if you go for a drop it may have adverse reactions. The weight cut, primarily through dehydration, is hard on the body, and even the mind. “The stress level can increase,” Lahiri acknowledged.
But it is achievable. Weightlifters, wrestlers and boxers rigorously follow protocols
to cut as well as gain or regain the lost fluids, salts and energy.
It is a hard process and takes hours and at times days depending on the weight that needs to be shed. High-intensity exercises like burpees, wearing multiple layers and hoodies etc, help in sweating it out. Fluids and food are avoided completely.
Vinesh jogged, skipped and sat in the sauna for hours on Tuesday night. She even had a haircut. All in vain.
How much amount of replenishment a wrestler has to take also varies.
“For me, as the competition nears, I generally take water fruits. That takes care of the dehydration as well and my weight is managed. But it’s easier said than done,” Guam’s Aquino said.
Questions are being asked if the support staff botched up Vinesh’s weight management. Did they, for instance, overdo the salt replenishing that could have led to water retention?
Nigeria’s women’s wrestling team coach Purity Akuh was convinced Vinesh’s team should have been extra cautious. “She was fighting for the gold. If I were a member of the support staff, I would have ensured she followed the regimen to the T. I do not know if they had any Plan B.”
