Vinesh Phogat’s coach Woller Akos opens up on weight cut session, says ’She collapsed but...’

A couple of days after the Court of Arbitration for Sports dismissed Indian wrestler Vinesh Phogat's disqualification plea, her coach Woller Akos of Hungary revealed that he feared Phogat may die during the intense work-cut session the night before the final of the women's 50kg final at the Paris Olympics 2024, reported Hindustan Times.

Phogat was scheduled to play her final match bout for gold medal against USA's Sarah Hildebrandt on 7 August, but ahead of her match she had to undergo a strenuous test. Vinesh and her coaching staff tried their best to get Vinesh's weight under control, but failed to decrease the last 100 grams which resulted in her disqualification.

Vinesh weigh control measures included cutting her hair, drawing out blood and other extreme measures, revealed her coach Woller Akos.

Explaining in detail the behind-the-scenes effort to decrease Phogat's weight, Akos said, as quoted by HT, “After the semi-final, 2.7 kg of excess weight was left; we exercised for one hour and twenty minutes, but 1.5 kg still remained. Later, after 50 minutes of sauna, not a drop of sweat appeared on her. There was no choice left, and from midnight to 5:30 in the morning, she worked on different cardio machines and wrestling moves, about three-quarters of an hour at one go, with two-three minutes of rest. Then she started again. She collapsed, but somehow we got her up, and she spent an hour in the sauna. I don’t intentionally write dramatic details, but I only remember thinking that she might die.”

Akos remembers Phogat's words:

In the process of losing weight within a span of few hours ahead of her golden bout with USA counterpart, Phogat underwent a lot of physical exhaustion. And after she was disqualified, she had to visit a hospital too. Akos had written a post regarding this in Hungarian which now has been deleted.

Remembering the conversation on her way back from the hospital with Phogat, Akos had written, as HT quoted, “We had an interesting conversation that night, returning from the hospital. Vinesh Phogat said, 'Coach, don't be sad because you told me that if I find myself in any difficult situation and need extra energy, I should think that I beat the best woman wrestler (Japan's Yui Susaki) in the world. I achieved my goal, I proved that I am one of the best in the world. We have proved that the gameplans work. Medals, podiums are just objects. Performance cannot be taken away'.”

It is to be understood that the Akos opened up facing flak for 'not doing his job properly', and IOA president PT Usha held Vinesh's coach responsible for weight management.

With agency inputs.