Vinesh Phoghat disqualified: India's Chief Medical Officer explains 'drastic' measures of weight cut

Indian contingent's Chief Medical Officer on Wednesday (August 7) explained the "drastic" measures taken by the team to ensure a weight cut for wrestler Vinesh Phogat, who was disqualified from the Paris Olympics 2024 due to being overweight by 100 grams.

In a video statement released on Wednesday, Indian team's Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Dinshaw Pardiwala and Indian Olympic Association (IOA) President PT Usha spoke about Vinesh's disqualification case.

Dr. Pardiwala explained the efforts they had taken to reduce Vinesh's weight ahead of her women's 50 kg final on Wednesday. The doctor also said that Vinesh was normal and mentioned about "rebound weight".

Here is the full statement of Dr. Pardiwala.

"Wrestlers usually participate in a weight categories less than their natural weight. It gives them an advantage since they are fighting with less stronger opponents. The process of weight cut prior to the weigh-in in the morning, involves a calculated restriction of food and water. And, besides this, the athlete needs to sweat. That sweating is doing with sauna, and with exercise.

Now, this weight cut has the benefit of putting you into a lighter weight category but cause weakness and energy depletion. This is counter productive to participation. So, most wrestlers thereafter go in for some amount of energy restoration with limited water and high energy foods. These are usually given after the weigh in.

The calculation from the nutritionist which is done is athlete specific and Vinesh's nutritionist felt that the usual amount that she takes is about 1.5 kg, totally, over the day, which gives enough energy for the bouts.

Sometimes there is also a factor of rebound weight gain following a competition. Vinesh had three bouts and to prevent any dehydration some amount of water had to be given. We found that her post-participation weight was increased more than normal. And, the coach initiated the normal process of weight cut he has always employed with Vinesh. This is something that has worked with her for a long period of time. He felt confident that this would be achieved and over the night we went ahead with the weight cut procedure. However, in the morning, we found that despite all of our efforts her weight was 100 grams over 50 kilogram weight category and hence she was disqualified.

We had tried all possible drastic measures throughout the night including cutting off her hair, shortening her clothes. Despite all this, we could not make that 50 kg weight category.

Following disqualification, as a precautionary measure, Vinesh was administered some intravenous fluids just to prevent dehydration. And, typically we get blood tests done to make sure that everything is normal. So, this process is going on at the local Olympic hospital here (Paris).

All of Vinesh's parameters during this weight cut were normal. And, throughout this process, she felt perfectly normal.

Vinesh just interacted with IOA President Dr PT Usha and mentioned that although she is perfectly medically and physically normal she is disappointed that this is her third Olympics and she had to be disqualified."