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The IOA President, PT Usha (L) and Vinesh Phogat (R) – (Image: IANS, AFP)
Vinesh Phogat has slammed the IOC President, PT Usha for taking pictures of her without her permission when hospitalised in Paris.
After a heartbreaking disqualification at the Paris Olympics 2024, the Indian wrestling star, Vinesh Phogat has slammed the President of the Indian Olympic Association (IOC) claiming that politics was involved when she shared the photo of Phogat after being hospitalised after her extreme weight-cutting process.
Phogat in an interview with a local news channel deemed the act of the IOC President coming in and visiting her all part of politics. The entire nation was concerned after hearing the extreme measures that Phogat had taken to ensure that she was able to make weight for her gold-medal match against USA’s Sarah Hildebrandt where she had the chance to create history.
“When PT Usha ma’am came in, I was in the hospital. A picture was clicked. Yes, no nothing. I don’t know what kind of support I got from there. As you said politics is something that happens behind the curtain, so politics happened there too. Politics, that is why I was heartbroken,” she said.
But she was unable to make weight which resulted in the entire nation being heartbroken seeing Phogat’s dream being snatched away from her.
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“You’re on the bed where you don’t know what’s going on with your life. You’re going through the worst part of your life. You’re just there to show the world that you are with them. You are taking pictures without telling them, you’re posting on social media that you’re with them. It doesn’t work like that,” she commented.
Now Phogat, along with Bajrang Punia has joined the Indian National Congress (INC) party after resigning from their respective positions in Northern Railways earlier.
The IOA had mentioned that they did have their legal representatives present to support Phogat during their appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). The IOA themselves had highlighted that the regulations posed by the IOC were inhumane.
“The matter involving Vinesh highlights the stringent and, arguably, inhumane regulations that fail to account for the physiological and psychological stresses athletes, particularly female athletes, undergo. It is a stark reminder of the need for more equitable and reasonable standards that prioritize athletes’ well-being,” said the IOC in a statement released on August 14.
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