A beaming smile lit up Vinesh Phogat's face as she held a giant card that said "Qualified Athlete" with #RoadToParis2024. She had just become the second Indian wrestler to qualify for the Paris Olympics - the first Indian woman wrestler ever to qualify for a third Olympics - and taken a step closer to winning that elusive medal.
It's probably one of the few instances Vinesh has had a genuine reason to smile in a very long time. The past year has been full of challenges, mostly of the non-wrestling kind: Death threats, sleeping on dusty sidewalks, being beaten and arrested by the police, public humiliation, false promises from the powerful and a career-halting injury.
The two-time Olympian led the protest against former Wrestling Federation of India [WFI] president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh and was among those who accused him of sexual misconduct. Singh publicly ridiculed her, questioned her motive and a hate campaign against Vinesh, Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia followed.
The same junior athletes who adored these wrestlers now protested against them and held up posters with their faces scratched out. The same officials that celebrated these wrestlers' many triumphs now turned a blind eye towards them sleeping on the footpath.
At the centre of it all was Vinesh (along with Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia), who had claimed that she and numerous minor wrestlers were sexually assaulted by Singh. She was the voice of the unheard and the first one to show the courage to speak up. "I have children in my family who are into wrestling and what began to bother me was: what if something wrong happened to them? That was my biggest trigger point," she told ESPN last year.
For most of that ordeal, Vinesh was not sure if she would ever step onto a wrestling mat ever again. The mental agony of taking on one of the most powerful political figures in India, speaking up about such a sensitive issue and challenging the authority of the powerful coupled with the physical toll of sleeping on the muddy pavements for nearly 40 days left her drained.
"In India, politics ke uppar kuch nahi hai (nothing is bigger than politics). This is what we learnt. We had an idea [of it] earlier, but now we saw it first-hand. No matter if you are an Olympic or national medallist, you are below their feet and will always remain there," she said.
Vinesh claimed that her family had received threats and she herself received death threats, which only made things so much harder to deal with. But that did not stop her. "At most, we will die and that's okay, we have come to unveil the truth and until we prove that...we won't accept that we are liars," she said.
Two rounds of protests and multiple rounds of discussions with the government finally yielded a result in June 2023 when the Delhi Police filed a chargesheet under Sections 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 354A (sexual harassment), 354D (stalking) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC on June 15. The case is still ongoing.
The challenges continued, though. When the wrestlers called off their protests and planned their return to the mat, Vinesh was mocked for "using her seniority" to secure a berth in the 2023 Asian Games squad. Antim Panghal, Vinesh's #1 challenger in the 53kg category, challenged her senior compatriot's credentials and it left a rather unsavoury taste.
"Sure, you may have taken on the authorities, but we don't care about that" was the feeling among the anti-Vinesh camp. It so happened that Vinesh injured her knee and had to undergo surgery, so she eventually gave up her Asian Games berth to Anshu.
The surgery to the left knee meant her chances of returning to the mat just got further complicated. She had to learn to walk again with both feet and achieve basic fitness before attempting basic wrestling drills. With her husband and fellow wrestler Somvir Rathee by her side, Vinesh fought her way back to the mat.
Even at that point, Vinesh felt the WFI was trying to get back at her through the National Anti-Doping Agency as she was issued a notice for a whereabouts doping failure. She took it in her stride and got back to competing in February, after more than a year away from competitive wrestling; she won gold in the 55kg category at the senior national championships.
Then came the selection trials for the Asian Olympic Qualifiers, the competition that would determine India's Olympic quota winners. There was drama aplenty at the trials as Vinesh had entered in the 50kg and 53kg categories and wanted assurance from the ad-hoc committee [which was in charge of the WFI at that time] that if she would be allowed a final trial in the 53kg [in which Antim already won the Olympic quota] before the Olympics. After receiving the approval, she won the 50kg trials.
That earned her a shot at a quota at the Asian Olympic Qualifiers, her first international competition since the 2022 World Championship. Vinesh steamrolled her opponents, winning bout #1 in 98 seconds and bout #2 in 66 seconds to come within a win from a quota.
She was up against a tougher opponent but it made little difference, Vinesh had been through hell and back over the last year, and wrapped up a masterful win to grab that Olympic quota.
However, her trip to the Paris Olympics ultimately depends on the WFI. The Federation, as per its selection guidelines, has the power to decide whether Vinesh is India's best wrestler in the 50kg category or if a final selection trial is required before the Games. It would be hard, though not unlikely given its previous decisions, for the WFI to deny Vinesh that Paris ticket.
One of Vinesh's prime goals was to make it to the Paris Olympics, as she had told ESPN: "I will look him [Brij Bhushan] in the eye and medal leke aungi main, tu dekh [bring back an Olympic medal and show it to him]. If I train well, I can win a medal. No one can stop me."