Vinesh Phogat and Sachin Tendulkar
The Paris Olympics has reached its final stage but all eyes are still on the appeal of Indian female wrestler Vinesh Phogat. Vinesh was disqualified before the gold medal match for being 100 grams overweight. After this, Vinesh filed an appeal in the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) on August 7 against her disqualification from the Olympic final of the 50 kg weight category, on which the decision will now come before the conclusion of the Paris Olympics. Vinesh has asked for a joint silver medal in her appeal.
The whole country is standing with Vinesh in this difficult time. India’s great cricketer Sachin Tendulkar has also come out in support of the female wrestler and has written a long post on X. Sachin Tendulkar has talked about umpire’s call in Vinesh’s case. Sachin wrote on X, “The time has come for the umpire’s decision! Every sport has its own rules and those rules should be seen in context, perhaps sometimes they should also be reconsidered. Vinesh Phogat qualified for the final with full honesty. Her disqualification on the basis of weight was before the final. And therefore, taking away her silver medal from her is against the spirit of sportsmanship.
Vinesh got silver medal
Sachin Tendulkar further said that stripping athletes of their Olympic medals is justified only if rules have been violated. Sachin Tendulkar said, “It would have been understandable if an athlete was disqualified for ethical violations such as the use of performance-enhancing drugs. In that case, it would have been justified to not award any medal and place last.”
Sachin said that Vinesh Phogat made it to the finals of the Paris Olympics in a fair manner and hence her silver medal should be returned. He finally said, “However, Vinesh defeated her competitors in a fair manner to reach the top-2. She definitely deserves the silver medal. While we all await the decision of the Court of Arbitration for Sports, let us pray that Vinesh gets the recognition she deserves.”
