PARIS — The weigh-in for the gold medal match was held at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday. Sarah Hildebrandt weighed in at 50 kilograms (120 pounds) for the freestyle wrestling event without any trepidation. Her opponent, Vinesh Phogat, was not present.

This was weird.

It was going to get weirder fast.

Phogat, from India, failed to make the required weight to compete — about 100 grams, or one-fifth of a pound. She was disqualified and finished last in the entire competition, knocking her off the podium, a surprising result that had sociopolitical implications in her country.

A DQ for a gold medal match may be unprecedented in Olympic wrestling history. Wrestling veterans couldn’t remember a previous example.

At first, it was thought that Hildebrandt would lose the gold medal match, which led to a celebration in her camp. Then came the news that Yusneylys Guzmán, the Cuban woman Phogat had defeated in the semifinals, would be promoted to the gold medal match. Hildebrandt began preparing for one opponent, but within an hour or so, she thought the event was over and began preparing for another opponent.

“I was preparing for chaos,” Hildebrandt said. “And that wasn’t on my chaos bingo card.”

The chaos was broken up in time for Hildebrandt to win the gold medal 3-0 in a relatively ordinary match against an opponent she had beaten 10-0 earlier in her career. Hildebrandt’s subsequent back-to-back women’s gold medal haul was not only a great moment for USA Wrestling, but also a great moment for invincible phenomenon Amit ElorHe wasn’t the wrestler everyone had in mind.

The sad, desperate melodrama continued through the night and into Wednesday morning. Vinesh, who is trying to win the first women’s wrestling gold medal in India’s history, emerged from a three-win campaign that ended in victory on Tuesday reportedly weighing 2.7 kilograms (6.7 pounds) more than expected and was a big problem.

The Indian wrestling staff subjected Vinesh to a sleepless night of exercise, sauna time and withholding food and water. Still overweight, they resorted to cutting Vinesh’s hair. All in vain. Her Olympics were over.

Inside Explanation about XDr Dinshaw Pardiwala, chief medical officer of the Indian Olympic Association, said Vinesh was given “limited water and high-energy foods” after a successful weigh-in on Tuesday, the first day of the competition. Pardiwala said Vinesh’s nutritionist estimated a gain of about 1.5 kilograms from the weigh-in intake, adding that sometimes there is a “rebound weight gain” after the competition.

After drinking “a small amount of water” to get through the three-match day on Tuesday, Vinesh was indeed overweight. According to Pardiwala, the usual weight loss procedures were not effective, so “every possible drastic measure” was employed. None of them worked.

Even if Vinesh had made the weight class, she might not have been in the physical or mental condition to effectively challenge Hildebrandt for the gold, but she would have been guaranteed a silver medal rather than being disqualified and placed last.

While these were the rules, they were not well-received by everyone in the wrestling community. Retired U.S. Olympian Jordan Burroughs It was said in X He said Vinesh should be given a silver medal as part of the changes he wants to be made in the United World Wrestling rules.

The response in India was overwhelming. Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussed on social media “Visneh, you are the champion of champions! You are the pride of India and an inspiration to every Indian. Today’s setback pains me. I wish words could express the feeling of helplessness I am experiencing.”

This was a turning point for Modi, whose government took tough action. a protest Vinesh joined last year. She was one of three athletes who took a dramatic public stand against allegations that Indian wrestling chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh sexually abused at least seven young women, including a minor, over a decade starting in 2012. Protest camps in New Delhi were broken up and the wrestlers were detained. After they were released, they threatened to go to the Ganges River and throw their wrestling medals into the water. (Singh said he was innocent. “If a single allegation is proven against me, I will hang myself,” he said last year.) New York Times.)

Modi’s political rivals used Vinesh’s stunning DQ to attack the government, and debate erupted in parliament over who was in charge and what could be done. According to New Delhi TV. Because anything can be used as a political cudgel when necessary.

Losing weight is a brutally necessary part of wrestling. Almost all wrestlers do it, and it’s part of their lifestyle. Hildebrandt said Wednesday morning after winning his gold medal that he needed to lose some weight — “just sweat a little” — and he does it routinely.

He expressed some sympathy for Vinesh. Some.

“As someone who is trying to lose weight myself, I feel bad for him,” Hildebrandt said. “He had a great day (Tuesday), he did some crazy moves, and I don’t think he anticipated that this would end his Olympics like this.

“It sucks, but at the end of the day it’s definitely part of the job. We all have to do it. I put a lot of time into it and it paid off.”

Weight limits exist to level the playing field between competitors. Pound-for-pound competition is standard in boxing, wrestling, and other combat sports. Everyone knows what the weight limits are and what the penalties are for exceeding them. This is a basic measure of fairness.

But the sometimes ugly work that has to be done to gain weight is an unspoken part of these sports. It can be dangerous to the athlete’s health and can lead to eating disorders.

At the Olympic level, the 10 weight classes in Unified World Wrestling events are being reduced to six, further exacerbating the problem. This leaves many competitors juggling too much weight, including Hildebrandt. He previously competed in the 55kg class.

“The weight loss took a lot of discipline and practice,” he said. “I actually started losing weight for these Games at the end of 2022… I had the smoothest cut of my life for Paris 2024 and it paid off, all the sacrifices and advance planning.”

To appreciate the horror in India, you have to understand the country’s Olympic history. For a country of 1.4 billion, the second most populous on the planet after China, it is remarkably sparse.

India has won a total of 38 Olympic medals, about five days’ work for the United States at an average Summer Games. Ten of those were gold and eight of the 10 were won in men’s hockey, a streak that ended in 1980. India’s two golds since then have come in shooting (2008) and javelin (2021).

India’s women’s sports have lagged far behind the international curve. That has begun to change with four women medalling at the last two Olympics, but there is still a long way to go.

Exactly zero Indian women have won Olympic gold medals. Exactly zero Indian women wrestlers have even reached the gold medal match, winning bronze in 2016. And exactly zero Indian men or women have ever won gold in Paris.

So Vinesh’s DQ was a punch to the gut. Victory was not guaranteed but at least she had a chance to become an Indian pioneer on more than one level.

A fifth of a pound denied him this opportunity.