SI:AM | Indian Wrestler Vinesh Phogat Files Appeal to Be Awarded Silver Medal After Missing Weight

She will have a hearing Friday in Paris.

Phogat was disqualified after failing to make weight. / PUNIT PARANJPE/AFP via Getty Images

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I’ll be sad to see the Olympics end but I’m looking forward to some time off after podcasting every day with Mitch Goldich.

In today’s SI:AM:

😷 Lyles’s illness
🇺🇸 The best hurdler in the world
📺 In praise of Gold Zone

She seems unlikely to succeed

Indian wrestler Vinesh Phogat has petitioned the Court of Arbitration for Sport to award her a silver medal after she failed to make weight and was disqualified from the women’s 50kg Olympic wrestling tournament just before her scheduled gold medal match against American Sarah Hildebrandt.

Phogat won her first three matches on Tuesday to advance to Wednesday’s gold medal bout. But due to the two-day format of the tournament, Phogat had to make weight again on Wednesday. When she missed weight, she was not only disqualified from the match against Hildebrandt but also had her previous victories in the tournament nullified.

Phogat reportedly needed to drop about two kilograms (4.5 pounds) before the final and missed weight by about 100 grams (3.5 ounces) after spending all night trying to shed water weight by running, cycling, jumping rope and sitting in a sauna. She even tried cutting her hair, ESPN India reported.

It’s common for athletes in sports like wrestling, weightlifting and judo to dehydrate themselves to make weight and then replenish their fluids before competition, thereby exceeding the weight limit. But while the weightlifting and judo competitions at the Olympics take place over a single day, the wrestling tournaments begin with the first three rounds one day and then the medal matches the following day, requiring athletes to make weight again.

Phogat filed her appeal on Wednesday, CAS said, seeking to order another weigh-in in hopes that she could be ruled eligible for the gold medal match. But the appeal came too soon before the start of the match to issue a ruling, CAS said, and so now Phogat is seeking to have her first three wins in the tournament reinstated and be awarded a silver medal.

The rules for missing weight are clear, though. United World Wrestling, which governs the Olympic wrestling tournament, says that any wrestler who misses weight on any day of a tournament “will be eliminated [from] the competition and ranked last.” Even though Phogat had met the weight requirements before the matches that put her in the gold medal bout, the UWW makes clear that missing weight the next day means those results are thrown out.

Phogat will have a hearing on Friday in Paris and CAS says it intends to issue a ruling before the Games close on Sunday.

Phogat, 29, is a highly decorated wrestler, boasting 15 medals in major international competitions. She had been considered a medal contender at the 2016 Olympics in Rio but dislocated her knee in a quarterfinal match. She was also eliminated in the quarterfinals at the Tokyo Olympics in ’21.

Regardless of how CAS rules on her appeal, Phogat’s wrestling career is over. She announced her retirement on social media on Thursday, writing in Hindi, “My courage is broken, I don’t have any more strength now. Goodbye Wrestling, 2001-2024.”

McLaughlin-Levrone set a new a world record on her way to gold Thursday, posting a time of 50.37 seconds. / Simon Bruty/Sports Illustrated

The best of Sports Illustrated

• Noah Lyles’s positive COVID-19 test isn’t an excuse for his bronze medal finish in the 200m, Michael Rosenberg writes.

• The other big story on the track on Thursday was Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone’s dominant win in the 400m hurdles. Greg Bishop has a very detailed story about how the world’s best hurdler became so great.

• Here is Mitch Goldich’s guide to what to watch on Friday at the Olympics, including the men’s soccer gold medal match and the debut of breaking.

• Goldich also wrote about the breakout star of these Olympics: Peacock’s indispensable Gold Zone broadcast.

• While American fans will rightly be focused on the USWNT in Saturday’s women’s soccer gold medal match, Clare Brennan wrote about why it’s also a fitting send-off for Brazilian legend Marta.

• One of the most dominant runs in international sports history came to an end when the U.S. women’s water polo team lost in the semifinals to Australia. Stephanie Apstein has more on the end of their pursuit of a four-peat.

• Gilberto Manzano was at Cowboys camp, where Dak Prescott looked great even though his top target, CeeDee Lamb, is holding out.

The top five…

… things I saw yesterday: 

5. Bogdan Bogdanović’s audacious celebration after hitting a three against the U.S. He stared right at Carmelo Anthony and mimicked Melo’s iconic celebration.
4. Mitch Haniger’s bases-clearing walk-off hit for the Mariners.
3. The shootout to decide the men’s field hockey gold medal.
2. French cyclist Benjamin Thomas’s comeback to win gold in the men’s omnium after crashing.
1. This overhead photo of Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone during the 400m hurdles, with none of her opponents in the frame.