'Broken' Phogat unsure of her return

NEW DELHI • India's Vinesh Phogat is not sure when, if at all, she will return to the wrestling mat as she struggles to cope with the disappointment of her Tokyo Olympics campaign.

Five years after being stretchered off the mat with a twisted knee in Rio de Janeiro, the 26-year-old was the top seed in the women's 53kg freestyle event in Tokyo.

But Belarusian Vanesa Kaladzinskaya shocked her in the quarter-finals and Phogat was accused of "indiscipline" by the Wrestling Federation of India on her return from Japan.

That has left her grappling with a second Olympic disappointment.

"I knew that in India, you fall as fast as you rise. One medal (lost) and everything is finished," she wrote in the Indian Express newspaper yesterday.

"I don't know when I will return (to the mat). Maybe I won't. I feel I was better off with that broken leg. I had something to correct. Now my body is not broken, but I'm truly broken."

Phogat said she continued to feel the after-effects of a concussion she had suffered in 2017 and twice contracted Covid-19 in her build-up to Tokyo.

The two-time Commonwealth Games champion also battled mental health problems and spoke to a psychologist but felt there was not enough attention paid to the issue in India.

"We celebrate Simone Biles as she said that 'I am not mentally prepared to perform at the Olympics' and did not do her event," she said, referring to the American gymnast who skipped most of her events in Tokyo to focus on her mental health.

"Try just saying that in India. Forget pulling out of wrestling, just try saying that you are not ready."

REUTERS