Following her disqualification from the Olympics in Paris, Indian wrestler Vinesh Phogat, devastated and disappointed, announced her retirement from the sport on Thursday. "Mother wrestling prevailed over me; I was defeated... Both my courage and your hopes are crushed. My strength has run out. From 2001 to 2024, goodbye wrestling. I will always be grateful to every one of you. Please pardon me," she wrote on X.

Before her gold medal match, she was discovered to be 100 grams overweight during the weigh-in, which resulted in her disqualification. Vinesh made history by becoming the first Indian woman wrestler to reach the gold medal bout in her category on Tuesday. She was assured of at least a silver medal before the disqualification.

The most painful loss of the day came when Vinesh was disqualified from the final match against Sarah Ann Hildebrandt of the United States because he weighed 100 grams too much in the morning. The change of events completely broke the 29-year-old wrestler.

Vinesh submitted an appeal after being disqualified and asked to be given a joint silver medal. Yusneylis Guzman Lopez of Cuba, whom Vinesh had beaten in the semifinals, took her spot in the championship match. In the end, Lopez was defeated by Hildebrandt in the championship match.

International rules state that, regardless of how well a wrestler performs in the competition, they will automatically finish last in the final standings if they are discovered to be overweight during the weigh-in process.