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India in despair as Olympic wrestler disqualified from final despite cutting hair off

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/article/2024/aug/07/india-despair-olympic-wrestler-fails--weight-gold-medal-final-paris-modi

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.

India in despair as Olympic wrestler disqualified from final despite cutting hair off

38 comments

saltesc

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Bottom two classes...

Women's wrestling 50 kg (110 lbs) 53 kg (117 lbs)

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.

jordanlund

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If that photo is after the haircut, there was room to lose more. :( Shave it all down! There's your 100g.

chemicalwonka

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It would have been better to shit to lose 100g than to cut the hair

Shard

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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.

Konstant

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Take some laxatives.

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FlyingSquid

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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, that's kind of bullshit.

mipadaitu

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There's a weight limit, and she was over it.

Is it bullshit if a high jumper just skims the bar and it falls? Or a 100m runner loses by 0.01 seconds?

This is all about the best of the best competing on a strictly defined ruleset.

Aurenkin

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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.

FlyingSquid

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It's 100 grams. If it was a kilogram, I'd get it. Or even over 500 grams if they want to round up.

FuglyDuck

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then the new weight becomes 50.1kg.

or if you're rounding to the nearest kg, then 50.49 kg becomes the new restriction. except what if it was 50.51? it's just 2 grams more. what's the big deal?

cynthorpe

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Heck, 5 more kg is just a hand full of grams.

Alexstarfire

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That's a 20 gram difference.

FlyingSquid

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I thought the next weight class was one kilogram higher. Is it not?

FuglyDuck

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they're in the lowest weight class, under 50kg. the next is 50-53 kg.

Doesn't really matter where you put the line. it's gotta go somewhere and at that level, they're always going to be gaming the system to get an advantage, and any sport with a weight class, that means doing things to temporarily drop weight for the weigh in ceremony. (not eating, dehydrating yourself. getting as naked as you can without the judge eyeing you.)

stoly

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I’m afraid that the Olympics are one place you have to be strict. You can’t trust people to be honest or fair

FlyingSquid

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I think the Olympics can trust their own scales. At least I would hope so.

stoly

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I’m surprised she didn’t avoid food or water for a bit. Maybe they miscalculated what the final weight would be

reddig33

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She did. If you read the article they had to give her IV fluids after failing to qualify because she was dehydrated.

I’m wondering if she just cut her hair, or shaved her head completely.

Bookmeat

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Should have gone all-in and bled out 100ml.

dogslayeggs

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She did. She was 2kg over the day before and went on an extreme dehydration and exercise protocol to try to drop down. She missed the cutoff but was so badly dehydrated that she needed IV fluids.

FuglyDuck

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she probably did. At that level, they want to be just as close to the restriction as possible while still being under. I can easily lose a kilo or two taking my morning piss.

SuperIce

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She weighed a couple kilos over before this. In order to try and meet the minimum weight, she didn't drink water for a day while exercising intensely to sweat a lot. She was so dehydrated that they gave her IV fluids after she failed the weigh-in. The weight category she tried to compete in was way too low for her.

insaneinthemembrane

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But she weighed in every other day too so she was the correct weight every day so far. One day she's 100g over and she loses her chance for a gold medal. That's harsh AF.

Cypher

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The rules are known to all competitors. It must remain harsh in order to be as fair as possible.

barryamelton

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???

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.

dogslayeggs

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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.

ichbinjasokreativ

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Didn't read the article, but are female wrestlers in the olympics only allowed to weigh 50kg? That seems absurdly light, even for women.

barryamelton

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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.

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.