Vinesh Phogat ends retirement to chase LA 2028 Olympic dream

Star Indian wrestler and Congress MLA Vinesh Phogat on Friday announced that she will come out of retirement to mount a fresh campaign for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, saying that “the fire never left” her despite the turmoil that followed her Paris 2024 heartbreak and the intense political scrutiny she has faced since.

The 31-year-old had shocked the sporting world by stepping away from wrestling after her dramatic and emotionally shattering disqualification for being 100 grams over the weight limit before the 50kg Olympic gold-medal bout in Paris. The episode triggered widespread debate, and though Phogat later appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) for a joint silver medal, the tribunal upheld the result.

Her retirement soon after coincided with a major shift in her public life: she entered politics, contested the Haryana elections, and was elected as an MLA from Julana on a Congress ticket.

But the months following Paris were marked not only by grief and transition but also by sustained online abuse from right-wing ecosystems, which repeatedly targeted her for her activism, her criticisms of sports governance, and her prominent role in the wrestlers’ protests. Much of the trolling was deeply misogynistic, and Congress leaders had publicly accused the ruling establishment’s supporters of orchestrating it.

Reflecting on this period, Vinesh wrote in a deeply personal social media post: "People kept asking if Paris was the end. For a long time, I didn't have the answer. I needed to step away from the mat, from the pressure, from the expectations, even from my own ambitions. For the first time in years, I allowed myself to breathe."

She added that time away had allowed her to confront both the visible and invisible parts of her journey — “the highs, the heartbreaks, the sacrifices, the versions of me the world never saw” — and through this reflection she rediscovered her competitive spirit. "I still love this sport. I still want to compete."

Phogat and her husband Somvir Rathee welcomed a baby boy in July, a moment she says helped her reconnect with the discipline and hunger that defined her career. "In that silence, I found something I'd forgotten — 'the fire never left'. It was only buried under exhaustion and noise. The discipline, the routine, the fight... it's in my system. No matter how far I walked away, a part of me stayed on the mat."

Announcing her return, she said she would approach LA 2028 with renewed clarity and a new source of strength. "So here I am, stepping back toward LA28 with a heart that's unafraid and a spirit that refuses to bow. And this time, I'm not walking alone — my son is joining my team, my biggest motivation, my little cheerleader on this road to the LA Olympics."

Vinesh had already rewritten Indian sporting history by becoming the first Indian woman wrestler to reach an Olympic gold-medal bout. A three-time Olympian, she has also won gold medals at the Asian Games and the Commonwealth Games, securing her place among India’s finest athletes.

Her comeback — shaped by personal resolve, political engagement and sustained public scrutiny — is set to become one of the defining narratives in the build-up to the Los Angeles Games.

With PTI inputs