VINESH Vinesh

General
WEIGHT CLASS FOCUS
She has competed in a variety of weight classes throughout her career, including the 48kg category at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro and the 50kg category at the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia. She began focusing on the 53kg category from 2019 onwards, following the 2018 rule change that sees wrestlers weigh-in the day of competition rather than the day before. "You need more speed and power in 53kg. I have focused on upper body a lot, both in the gym as well on the mat. In 50kg speed is important but here it is both speed and strength. Every opponent is strong and you need to have the stamina to last till the end." (firstpost.com, 09 Jan 2020; hindustantimes.com, 13 Sep 2019; unitedworldwrestling.org, 17 Mar 2017)

FAMOUS FAMILY
She comes from a family that is famous for wrestling in India. She and her sister Priyanka were raised by their uncle, Mahavir Singh Phogat, after their father died when she was age eight. Mahavir taught them wrestling alongside his four daughters Geeta, Babita, Sangeeta and Ritu, and all six cousins have represented India in the sport. She said her uncle used to wake them up at 04:00 for wrestling training, and they would train every day for six hours. "I was good at wrestling but I wasn't too keen on pursuing it. He [Mahavir] wanted an Olympic medal. We did not even know what that was. We used to wonder, 'Who is this Olympics?' We just wanted the Olympics to show up fast so that we could get a break from my uncle's strict training." (theweek.in, 06 Jan 2020)

LOSS OF FATHER
Her father, the younger brother to Mahavir Singh Phogat, was shot and killed over a land dispute when she was age eight. Like her uncle, she says her father hoped the girls in his family would become successful wrestlers. "My father had big dreams for us. He used to say that, one day, his daughters would wrestle professionally and he would watch from the crowd and cheer on. When he died, I was too young to understand what to feel, so the loss did not affect me a lot then. But, whenever my mother cried over his death, I would feel bad. Now that I am older, I understand that pain; I miss my father's presence. I sometimes wish he was there to watch me during competitions." (theweek.in, 06 Jan 2020)

OCCUPATION
She joined the Indian Railways under a sports quota programme that allows her to train and compete internationally. (1843magazine.com, 15 Nov 2019)

She became the first female Indian athlete to win a gold medal in freestyle wrestling at the Asian Games when she was victorious in the 50kg category at the 2018 Games in Indonesia. (indiatimes.com, 21 Aug 2018; SportsDeskOnline, 21 Aug 2018)