Vinesh Phogat

Vinesh Phogat (born 25 August 1994) is an Indian wrestler, supported by OGQ. She became the first Indian woman wrestler to win a gold at both the Commonwealth and Asian Games. She is the only Indian woman wrestler to win multiple medals at the World Wrestling Championships. Phogat became the first Indian athlete to be nominated for the Laureus World Sports Awards in 2019.

Phogat comes from a successful family of wrestlers. Her cousins have been international wrestlers and Commonwealth Games medalists as well. She was one of the leaders of the 2023 Indian wrestlers' protest against BJP MP Brij Bhushan Singh which was held in two phases, one in January 2023 and the second in April 2023.

Personal life and family
Vinesh is the daughter of wrestler Rajpal Phogat and cousin of wrestlers Geeta and Babita. Both her cousins have won a gold in the 55 kg category at the Commonwealth Games.

By allowing her cousins and her to pursue competitive wrestling, her father and uncle had to deal with immense pressure and opposition from the community in their village in Haryana. They were judged to be going against the morals and values of their community. Her cousin, Ritu Phogat, is also an international level wrestler and won a gold medal at the 2016 Commonwealth Wrestling Championship.

On 13 December 2018, she married her long-time boyfriend and fellow wrestler Somvir Rathee of Bakhta Khera village of Jind district, who is a two-time gold medalist at the national championships. The couple have known each other since 2011 and both work for the Indian Railways where they met and fell in love.

She suffered a career-threatening anterior cruciate ligament tear in her knees at the Rio Olympics.

Career
In world championship 2019, she bagged her maiden world championship medal (a bronze). She bagged a Gold at the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games in 2018 in the 50 kg category. In the Matteo Pellicone Ranking Series in Rome, the 26 year old defeated Canada's Diana Mary Helen Weicker 4–0 in the 53 kg final.

2013 Asian Wrestling Championships
In 2013 Asian Wrestling Championships in New Delhi, India, Vinesh won the bronze medal in the women's freestyle 52 kg category, winning 3:0 in the bronze medal bout through the repechage round to Tho-Kaew Sriprapa of Thailand.

In the first round, Vinesh won 3:1 against Nanami Irie of Japan. She then lost 1:3 in the quarter-finals to Tatyana Amanzhol of Kazakhstan who qualified for the final thus qualifying the Indian grappler for the repechage round.

2013 Commonwealth Wrestling Championships
In an exclusive tournament held in Johannesburg, South Africa, Vinesh finished second and won the silver medal in the women's freestyle 51 kg category, losing in the final round to Odunayo Adekuoroye of Nigeria.

2014 Commonwealth Games
Vinesh represented India in the women's freestyle 48 kg category at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, and won the gold medal.

In the quarter-finals, Vinesh faced Rosemary Nweke of Nigeria and beat her 5–0. Her semi-finals opponent was Jasmine Mian of Canada whom she beat 4–1. In the gold medal bout, she faced home favourite Yana Rattigan of England and won the gold medal, beating her 3–1.

2014 Asian Games
At the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea, Vinesh won a bronze medal in the women's freestyle 48 kg category.

In the Round of 16, Vinesh faced Yongmi Pak from the People's Republic of Korea and beat her 3–1. Her quarter-finals opponent was Dauletbike Yakhshimuratova of Uzbekistan whom she overcame easily with a 5–0 scoreline. She lost 1–3 in the semi-finals to Eri Tosaka of Japan but qualified for the bronze medal bout and beat Narangerel Eredenesukh of Mongolia to win 10-0 easily after the referee stopped the bout (classification points 4:0).

2015–2017
At the 2015 Asian Championships in Doha, Phogat won the silver medal in her category after losing the final to Yuki Irie of Japan. In the qualifying tournament for the 2016 Rio Olympics held in Istanbul, she won in the final round beating Polish wrestler Iwona Matkowska, and qualified for the Olympics in the process.

At the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, Vinesh reached the Quarter Finals and lost to Sun Yanan of China owing to a knee injury.

2018 Gold Coast CommonWealth Games
Vinesh Phogat won the gold medal in women's 50 kg freestyle wrestling at 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast.

2018 Asian Games
Vinesh Phogat won the gold medal at the 2018 Asian Games and became first Indian woman wrestler to win a gold at the Asian Games. Phogat beat Japan's Yuki Irie in the Women's 50 kg Freestyle Wrestling gold medal match 6–2.

2019 Asian Wrestling Championships
Vinesh won the bronze medal in 2019 Asian Wrestling Championships by defeating the World Championships bronze medallist Qianyu Pang of China.

2019 Yasar Dogu International
Phogat won a gold medal at the 2019 Yasar Dogu International by defeating Ekaterina Poleshchuk of Russia.

2019 Poland Open
Phogat bagged her third consecutive gold in the women's 53 kg category after winning the Poland Open wrestling tournament in Warsaw.

2019 World Wrestling Championships
Phogat bagged a maiden World Championship medal in the women's 53 kg category after pinning Maria Prevolaraki in the Bronze medal match. She became the first Indian wrestler to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics 2020 by virtue of her top six finish.

 2020 season 

In January 2020, Phogat won gold in the Rome Ranking Series, defeating Luisa Elizabeth Valverde (4-0).

2021
Phogat defeated the 2017 world champion Vanesa Kaladzinskaya to win the gold medal at the Outstanding Ukrainian Wrestlers and Coaches Memorial tournament held in Kiev in February 2021. Phogat won the gold medal at the 2021 Matteo Pellicone Ranking Series event and reclaimed her world number one rank.

Phogat won the gold medal in the women's 53 kg event at the 2021 Poland Open.

2020 Tokyo Olympics and suspension
In August 2021, she competed in the women's 53 kg event at the 2020 Summer Olympics where she was defeated in the quarterfinals by Belarusian Vanesa Kaladzinskaya. Soon after the Olympics, she was suspended by the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) for indiscipline as she had refused to train with her Indian teammates at the Olympics Village and had not worn the official Indian kit at the Olympics. Phogat issued an apology to the WFI, even as the WFI expressed its disapproval of private NGOs like JSW Sports and Olympic Gold Quest, which WFI believed were "spoiling" Indian wrestlers by the way they were handling and training them. In November 2021, WFI prevented private NGOs from signing contracts with and training wrestlers without its approval, leading to Phogat losing her private contract with JSW Sports.

2022
She won the gold medal in the women's 53kg event at the 2022 Commonwealth Games held in Birmingham, England. She won one of the bronze medals in the 53kg event at the 2022 World Wrestling Championships held in Belgrade, Serbia.

She also won the BBC Indian Sportswoman Of The Year award for 2022.

2024
She competed at the 2024 Asian Wrestling Olympic Qualification Tournament in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan and she earned a quota place for India for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France.

Protest Against WFI Chief
Vinesh Phogat including thirty Indian wrestlers, Olympic medallists Sakshi Malik, Anshu Malik, and Bajrang Punia, among others, organised a protest in January 2023(2023 Indian wrestlers' protest) and demanded the dissolution of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) after it was alleged that its coaches and president, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, had been harassing female players sexually for years. The government's pledge to form an oversight committee to look into the claims caused the protests to be cancelled in January 2023. In April 2023, the protesting wrestlers returned to their rallies, claiming that the government was doing nothing.

In a second phase of protest, which happened in April 2023, She said that after reporting Bhushan to Prime Minister Modi and Sports Minister Anurag Thakur, she was "mentally harassed, tortured, and threatened to be killed."

Honors

 * Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna - The highest sports honour in India, she received it in 2020.
 * Arjuna Award, winner in 2016.
 * Padma Shri, nominated in 2018 by the Sports Authority of India.