Vinesh Phogat announces return to wrestling after 18-month retirement
The three-time Olympian declared announced her retirement from wrestling, a day after she was disqualified from the 50kg category final at the Paris Olympics.
Vinesh Phogat on Friday (December 12) declared her return to wrestling, ending her 18-month retirement with a powerful declaration.
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On 8 August 2024, the three-time Olympian declared announced her retirement from wrestling, a day after she was disqualified from the 50kg category final at the Paris Olympics.
Vinesh Phogat's comeback
In a post on X, she wrote, “People kept asking if Paris was the end. For a long time, I didn’t have the answer. I needed to step away from the mat, from the pressure, from the expectations — even from my own ambitions. For the first time in years, I allowed myself to breathe.”
“I took time to understand the weight of my journey — the highs, the heartbreaks, the sacrifices, the versions of me the world never saw. And somewhere in that reflection, I found the truth: I still love this sport. I still want to compete.”
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She added: “In that silence, I found something I’d forgotten — the fire never left. It was only buried under exhaustion and noise. The discipline, the routine, the fight… it’s in my system. No matter how far I walked away, a part of me stayed on the mat.”
Phogat said, “So here I am, stepping back towards Los Angeles 2028 with a heart that’s unafraid and a spirit that refuses to bow.”
“And this time, I’m not walking alone — my son is joining my team, my biggest motivation, my little cheerleader on this road to the Los Angeles Olympics,” she concluded.
Trailblazing woman wrestler
A two-time World Championships bronze medallist, Vinesh Phogat is a former Asian champion, an Asian Games gold medallist, and a three-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist.
She is the only Indian woman wrestler to have won gold at both the Asian and Commonwealth Games.
On 8 August 2024, she retired from the sport after being disqualified for weighing 100 grams over the permissible limit during the morning weigh-in for the Paris Olympics final.
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Vinesh Phogat is also a member of the Haryana Legislative Assembly, representing Julana. Standing on a Congress ticket, she won by a margin of 6,015 votes, defeating her closest rival, pilot Yogesh Kumar of the BJP.