Wrestler Vinesh Phogat announced her retirement on Thursday, a day after she was disqualified from the wrestling final at the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
Vinesh was disqualified from the Gold medal match of the 50 kg Women's Wrestling for being overweight by 100 grams.
Announcing her retirement, she said in a post on X in Hindi, "Ma Kusti (Wrestling) won against me, I lost. Forgive me, your dream and my courage has been broken. I don't have any more strength now."
"Goodbye Wrestling 2001-2024," she added in the post.
Vinesh had won the semi-final bout by a margin of 5-0 against her opponent and was the first Indian woman wrestler to qualify for an OIympics final.
However, she was disqualified from the final match for being just 100 gram overweight, following which she has appealed in the Court of Abritration for Sport (CAS). She asked that she should be given the Silver medal for the event.
The 29-year-old wrestler from Haryana is a three-time Olympian, having contested in three different weight categories in all three games.
While she contested in 48 kg Women's Wrestling in 2016 Olympics in Rio, she contested in 53 kg Women's Wrestling in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, and contested in the 50 kg Women's Wrestling in 2024 in Paris.
She has won three Gold medals in three Commonwealth Games, in 2014, 2018 and 2022, in three different weight categories.
Vinesh also became the first Indian woman wrestler to win a Gold medal at the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games in the same year after she won Gold medals in 2018. She has also won two bronze medals at the World Wrestling Championships in 2019 and 2022, respectively.
