Paris 2024: Vinesh Phogat to fight for gold medal after pulling off biggest upset by an Indian at the Olympics

Can someone beat Susaki at the Olympics? Sure, and then perhaps then they can go and punch out God. She’s crushed everyone who was anyone. But Vinesh Phogat is not anyone.

India’s Vinesh Phogat reacts after beating Japan’s Yui Susaki. | Photo Credit: PTI

82-0.

Or is it 92-0? Maybe 95-0? No one at the Champs de Mars arena knows what the first two digits in Yui Susaki’s career record are. It’s like the number of goals Pele scored in his career. You know it’s a lot. The consensus is that it’s 82-0. What everyone agrees on is the last digit that indicate career losses.

Zero.

Imagine being that good. It takes an all-time great to have a record anywhere close to that in elite wrestling. Susaki is just that good. In a streak that’s lasted seven years since she made her international debut, and which encompasses the Olympics and four World Championships, the challenge for the Japanese phenom’s opponents has been to score a point. At the last Olympics, no one did.

She’s too fast. Too slick. Too technical. Too intelligent. Too damn perfect.

She’s never been threatened. She’s never even been pushed. She’s beaten World champions and Olympic medallists for fun. Post defeat, her opponents are left bemused and dazed. Many have that thousand-yard stare at the end of an encounter with the Japanese.

Can someone beat Susaki at the Olympics? Sure, and then perhaps they can go and punch out God. She’s crushed everyone who was anyone.

But Vinesh Phogat is not anyone.

Drawn against Susaki in the first round of the Olympics, she executed a perfectly timed take down in the dying seconds of the match. And just like that, Susaki’s perfect record was gone.

82-1.

Vinesh is the ‘one’.

Fuelled by sheer rage and the ability to focus it into a laser-like intensity, the 29-year-old pulled off the greatest upset on the biggest stage for India. Nothing compares to this. It’s unlikely anything ever will.

It’s a win that cracked open the entire field for Vinesh and set up a dramatic title run. Vinesh would go on to beat European champion Oksana Livach 7-5 in the quarterfinals and then Pan American champion Yuznelys Guzman of Cuba 5-0 in the semifinals. She will take on Sarah Hildebrandt of the USA in the gold medal match. Should she beat Hildebrandt, as she’s done in 2019, Vinesh will be the first Indian women’s Olympic champion.

Going into the match, the only one who would have probably bet on Vinesh was herself.

The odds have been stacked against her for a very long time now.

The Olympics – the highlight of an athlete’s career - have never left happy memories for Vinesh. In 2016, her campaign was cut short in the cruellest of fashion when she was badly injured in the quarterfinals. Five years later in Tokyo, she had prepared well but the stresses of the weight cut left her with a neurological ailment that left her dazed and confused on the mat, unable even to see what was in front of her in her second-round match. Another early exit.

At her lowest point, the powerful, like vultures, picked on her. Her nature, naturally confident and outspoken, was used against her. They prodded and nudged at her, confident that her career was all but done. They insulted her. They insulted her coach Hungary’s Woller Akos, who had left his wife and young child to come and work with the Indian and accused him of being money-minded.

She admitted being depressed and morbid thoughts crossed her mind. Eventually, she had enough and began to fight back.

In January 2023, it looked unlikely that Vinesh was going to be wrestling anytime soon. She, along with other wrestlers, had started an unprecedented protest against the then Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, accusing him of sexual harassment.

Susaki is just a wrestler, fighting on a mat with rules. In taking on Brij Bhushan, a member of parliament of the ruling party, Vinesh had issued a challenge to the seat of power.

She fought her battle not on the synthetic mat but on the pavement of New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar in the sweltering heat and humidity of the North Indian summer. One year before the Olympics, while the rest of the world was entering the final lap of their preparation, Vinesh, dressed in t-shirts and pyjamas, was sleeping in a tent under a Neem tree in the heart of Delhi. And when she was awake, she had a microphone in hand, calling out all that was wrong in sport for women in India.

She continued to fight even when the police dragged her away from the protest site. She went to court, and she is still fighting there.

In the autumn of 2023, while Susaki coasted to a second World title, dropping three points in four matches, Vinesh was recovering from a surgery to a torn Anterior Cruciate Ligament. It’s a surgery that necessitates, at the best of times, a six-month layoff. She cried and willed herself through rehabilitation.

Her injury also coincided with the rise of another Indian wrestler Antim Panghal. As Vinesh lay bedridden, Antim won a bronze in the women’s 53kg category and earned a quota for the Paris Olympics. Now, Vinesh had no option but to drop down to the 50kg category.

Vinesh had wrestled her first Olympics in the 48kg category. She was 22 then. As she grew older, it became harder to maintain that weight. She then moved up to the 50kg category and then the 53kg category at the time of the Tokyo Olympics. Even at 53kg, she was losing a lot of weight to compete. The weight loss resulted in poor recovery and frequent injuries. She was being forced back into the 50kg category – the lightest in women’s wrestling. But she came through Olympic qualification and earned the right to compete at her third Olympics.

When the draw was announced on Monday, it was Susaki in Round 1 for her. Not so bad because at least it would open the opportunity for repechage and a bronze. Still impressive, but not impressive enough for Vinesh.

She came out in a blue singlet, and protective braces covered the scars of surgery on both her knees. Her face was gaunt and drawn because of the weight cut. Susaki strode in with the confidence of someone who knows she is going to win. Her family was there in the stands as were her friends and officials of the company she works for. The Olympics was less a competition for her than a coronation.

Talk to any wrestler in India and chances are the words they’ll use to describe Vinesh are ‘gifted’, ‘natural’ and ‘instinctive’. Vinesh knew she would not be able to match the Japanese in a wrestling match. But she wrestled as stubbornly as she ever had. She was not interested in scoring early in the match. But, more importantly, she was not going to give Susaki any chance to score either.

The referee motioned to Vinesh to do something on two occasions and then cautioned her. After a 30-second period of inactivity, a point was awarded to Susaki. The Japanese was 1-0 up.

Vinesh’s tactics stayed the same. Another caution, another thirty seconds on the clock and another point was awarded to Susaki. 2-0 to her.

Through it all, Vinesh’s eyes remained locked on the Japanese. She bided her time and knew she would have her chance. Then, with 20 seconds on the clock, she burst into life. She went for a single-leg grab that Susaki defended. But the sudden shift in action flustered the Japanese. Her technique cracked, and instead of escaping to the side, she started back-tracking.

There were 10 seconds left and it was clear there was no technique in this. Vinesh was just bull rushing forward. Susaki was still backpedalling as she tripped and fell on her side. She tried to scramble away but Vinesh landed on top of her.

The referee lifted his thumb and forefinger skyward - two points to Vinesh. The scores were level 2-2, but Vinesh was leading by virtue of securing the higher scoring technique. There was no time for the score to change. The referee blew his whistle at 2-2: Vinesh had won.

On the side of the mat, Akos was thumping the mat. Vinesh threw herself on the mat back first and lay there. The Japanese team was stunned. They challenged the final takedown, but it was rejected, and a point was awarded against them. That made it 3-2 in Vinesh’s favour. Susaki was in tears as her hand was not raised for the first time in an international bout. Vinesh was in tears as well.

Then she composed herself and her eyes went back to their shark-like intensity. She set her face back into an expression of grim determination. She refused to speak to the broadcasters and stormed past the mixed zone, staring at the ground in front of her. She did this again after beating Livach in the quarterfinals. After beating Guzman in the semifinals, she sank on her knees. After beating Susaki, neither were particularly hard matches. Then she hugged her coach and walked out of the hall.

She collected hand slaps as she walked past the journalists in the mixed zone but didn’t speak. “I’ll talk after the final,” is all she said.

Her job isn’t done.

She will wrestle for a medal on Wednesday.

She doesn’t need to speak. She’s doing all the talking on the mat. She has issued the biggest statement. She has beaten the one. She has become the one.