India’s Olympic contingent are devastated after the female wrestler Vinesh Phogat was disqualified before her gold medal match for not making the weight despite cutting off her hair off.
50.1kg is definitely in the next class. She flew too close to the sun min/maxing while all other competitors managed fine, making them better competitors.
At that stage of a weight in, you've not even drank water the past day, there is literally not another drip of shit or pee you can willing force out of yourself.
India’s Olympic contingent are devastated after one of their marquee athletes, the female wrestler Vinesh Phogat, was disqualified hours before her gold medal match for exceeding the 50kg restriction by the weight of a medium-sized banana (100 grams) despite even cutting off her hair in an attempt to fight for gold.
Yeah as much as this sucks, and it really really sucks, I don't think we can really claim that it's bullshit or unfair. Every athlete has to conform to these standards, and they are very well known ahead of time.
The rules are there to keep the wrestlers safe. Is 0.1kg over OK? What about 0.2kg? 1kg? I mean, how much of a difference can 2.2 pounds really make when wrestling?
The thing is they know the limit. They push it (too hard IMO) to eke out every advantage. In her case she was 2kg over the day before and went on an extreme dehydration and exercise protocol to drop weight. The protocol was so bad she needed to be immediately placed on IV fluids after the weigh-in to keep her healthy. The rules are there to protect the athletes who DIDN'T go overweight by too much the day before.
She weighted 2 kilos more than allowed the day before, putting her over 50, even almost making it to 53 which would be 2 weight classes over.
They put her in dehydration, diet, "trash bag" running to get all sweat out, a Sauna in the morning of the weight-in (but she wasn't sweating anymore), they removed blood from her, and as a last measure, cut her hair.
She failed.
She needed IV injections right after the moment of the weight-in by the committee. She then was hospitalized and remains hospitalized. It seems that luckily she is fine.
Disqualification is there to prevent countries pushing their athletes through these ordeals, which have long-term consequences on their health.