'Nita Ambani could have done something, but she didn't', Vinesh Phogat on her Olympics disqualification
Vinesh Phogat who is contesting the Haryana Assembly elections as a Congress candidate in Julana was disqualified for being overweight during the weigh-in ahead of the final after she was found to be overweight by 100 grams.
Wrestler-turned-politician Vinesh Phogat has claimed that Nita Ambani, the wife of Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani and India's representative to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), did not do anything to help her when she was disqualified before the Olympics final for being overweight. Nita Ambani is an IOC member. She is bidding to host the Olympics in 2036.
"But that is not how you win Olympic medals. If she wanted, she could have done something (about the disqualification). If not, what is the point of her being in the IOC?" Phogat asked in a recent television interview.
She's now blaming Nita Ambani for her disqualification.
¡ª Mr Sinha (@MrSinha_) October 3, 2024
What a clown!!? pic.twitter.com/wfzYctuSc6
'Politics is everywhere'
The 30-year-old, who is contesting the Haryana Assembly elections as a Congress candidate in Julana, further said she was forced to enter politics, as "politics was being played out everywhere."
CREDIT: IANS
Weight management is athlete's responsibility: Mary Kom
Meanwhile, legendary Indian female boxer MC Mary Kom on Thursday waded into the debate over Phogat's Olympic disqualification and said that it was the responsibility of the individual athlete to be within the prescribed weight limit.
"I felt so disappointed in the sense that I have also done the same (weight management) for the last so many years. Weight is important; that is my responsibility. I cannot blame anyone," Kom said.
CREDIT: ANI
"I do not want to say this in her case. I am saying this in my case only. If I do not cut the weight properly, then how will I play? I am there to win a medal, and that is what I think," the 42-year-old mother of four and an eight-time world champion in boxing added.
Vinesh Phogat's Olympics disqualification
Phogat, who led the wrestlers' protest against the then-WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who was accused of the sexual assault of female athletes, was assured of an Olympic medal in Paris in the 50-kg weight category for women's wrestling.
CREDIT: IANS
However, she was disqualified for being overweight during the weigh-in ahead of the final after she was found to be overweight by 100 grams.
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Bobins Abraham is the Assistant News Editor at Indiatimes. He has more than twelve years of experience in TV and digital journalism. An avid student of history and geopolitics, he is a conservationist and environmentalist at heart. He writes on environment, sustainability, human-animal conflict and more.
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