This came after her shocking disqualification from the Paris Olympics due to being overweight by 100 grams during the second day of weigh-in, just hours before her gold medal match against American wrestler Sarah Hildebrandt.Singh emphasized that the mistake of not ensuring Vinesh maintained her weight before the final was unacceptable. The Indian contingent was taken aback by the unexpected news of her disqualification.
As a result of Vinesh’s disqualification, Cuban wrestler Guzman Lopez Yusnelis, who had lost to Vinesh in the semifinals, will now face Hildebrandt in the gold medal bout.
Vinesh has been under the guidance of her personal coach from Belgium, Woller Akos, and has also received support from South African mental conditioning coach Wayne Lombard.
“It is not a fault of Vinesh. She was performing amazingly. The coaches, the support staff, the physios and the nutritionists should take full responsibility,” Sanjay Singh told PTI.
“They should have paid attention to her all the time to ensure nothing of this sort happens. How this happened and how she went over the weight limit must be looked into.
“I request the Government of India to take action against all those responsible,” he said.
Vinesh had chosen to train with Akos, and the Indian government approved his travel to the Games alongside her.
Like the Indian national coaches, Akos was granted full-access accreditation.
There’s no denying that Akos has played a crucial role in reshaping Vinesh’s game.
He has been working with the star Indian wrestler since 2018, implementing technical and tactical changes to her game. Under his guidance, Vinesh has secured two World Championship bronze medals.
Vinesh’s top form was evident when she defeated the unbeaten Yui Susaki by employing a patient strategy and executing a match-winning move in the final moments of the match.
Akos, sitting in Vinesh’s corner, was visibly emotional and seen crying when she secured her spot in the final.
The WFI President announced that the federation would now require all coaches training Indian wrestlers to be UWW certified moving forward.
“The Wrestling Federation of India will try their best to hire coaches who have cleared the level 1 and level two courses of the UWW.
“We will also ensure that the wrestlers practice with the coaches of WFI and officials of the UWW so that such episodes never happen ever again,” he said.
Asked specifically, will WFI allow personal coaches or not, Singh said, the matter will be discussed.
“The entire WFI committee will decide how to move forward with this matter.”
Singh said he is holding a meeting with IOA President PT Usha and they will approach UWW chief Nenad Lalovic to see if anything can be done.
“I spoke to the IOA (Indian Olympics Association) and the UWW (United World Wrestling) and I even sent letters, asking them to look into the matter and allow her to compete,” he said.
Later, the Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya made a statement in the Lok Sabha.
Mandaviya said the government had provided a financial assistance of Rs 70 lakh to Vinesh in the build-up to the Games for training and competitions abroad where she travelled with her support staff — that included Akos, Lombard, Ashwini Jeevan Patil (Physio), Manyank Singh (mental conditioning expert), and Arvind (sparring partner).
They trained in Spain, France and Hungary.
The minister also said in the Tokyo Olympic cycle, she was provided financial assistance of more than Rs 1 crore 13 lakh.