United World Wrestling (UWW) President Nenad Lalovic addressed the disappointment surrounding Vinesh Phogat’s disqualification from the 50kg women’s freestyle wrestling final at the Paris 2024 Olympics. Phogat, who was set to face USA’s Sarah Hilderbrandt, was disqualified after exceeding the weight limit by a little over 100 grams during the weigh-in.
Lalovic acknowledged the disappointment but stressed that exceptions cannot be made. “We have to respect the rules. I’m so sad what happened to her. She was overweight, even though by a small margin but rules are rules. The weigh-in is public and all the athletes are there. It’s impossible to let someone to compete who doesn’t make the weight,” he said.
The UWW President addressed the possibility of allowing Phogat to compete despite exceeding the weight limit, considering she made the weight on the first day. “It is impossible because the brackets are changing. Everything is changing. And anyway, the rules are rules. Everybody who goes to these competitions knows they have a second weigh-in the next day,” he explained.
Lalovic further emphasized the importance of enforcing strict weight limits to protect wrestlers’ health. “We should be more strict on that because we have a problem that you are living in this moment. The wrestlers are losing too much weight and it’s not good for their health. Many have seen their interest at the moment but they don’t see what happens in 20-30 years. We want athletes to compete in their natural weight. That’s the idea. This is when they make the best performances. Unfortunately, it’s a second case here. We had an Italian wrestler the previous day who didn’t make the weight and she didn’t compete,” he stated.
Addressing the leniency of the weight-cut rule in ranking series tournaments, Lalovic clarified, “The reason for that is because this is a preparation period before the big competitions like the Continental or World Championships. There is weight tolerance of 1 or 2kg. But it’s just 1kg. The problem is that you already lost 5kg to have a tolerance of 1kg. That is the problem. Not the 1kg tolerance. 1kg is nothing. But our wrestlers lose, sometimes, 50 percent of their natural weight. And that’s definitely not healthy.”
The disqualification of Vinesh Phogat, despite the small margin by which she exceeded the weight limit, highlights the strict adherence to rules and the emphasis on protecting athletes’ health in international sporting events.
