‘Oh my gosh…’: Sarah Hildebrandt’s 1st reaction on Vinesh Phogat’s disqualification         

Paris, August 8

American wrestler Sarah Ann Hildebrandt, who won the Olympics 50kg gold medal bout from which Vinesh Phogat was disqualified for being overweight, says she was prepared for chaos on the morning of the summit clash but not the kind that unfolded around the Indian.

Vinesh was disqualified and replaced by Cuban Yusneylis Guzman Lopez in the Olympic finals. The 29-year-old Indian had defeated Lopez in the semifinal and was set to face Hildebrandt for the gold but was found 100gm overweight during the weigh-in on Wednesday morning.

"I prepared for chaos, but that was not on my bingo card of chaos," said Hildebrandt, who defeated Lopez in the final to claim the coveted gold.

The 30-year-old Hildebrandt, who won a bronze in the Tokyo Games, said she did not spot Vinesh at the time of weigh-in and for a while, thought that the Indian had forfeited.

"(Vinesh) wasn't at weigh-ins, so I was in my head like, 'Oh my gosh, this might be a possibility.' Then, we get the news that she didn't make weight, and we were under the impression that it was a forfeit. So, there was a lot of celebrating," she recalled after the final.

"It was very strange, like 'Oh my god, I just won the Olympics.' Then an hour later, they were like, 'You did not win the Olympics.' I'm like, 'Oh, this is very weird.' So there had to be a reset. I took a nap, woke up, and it was like a fever dream."

Vinesh, who had dropped to 50kg category early this year to stay in the hunt for an Olympic spot, took desperate measures to make the cut for the bout, including going hungry, avoiding fluids and staying up all night to sweat it out.

But it was not to be as she still fell short of the mark and eventually ended up so dehydrated that she had to be put on IV fluids at a polyclinic in the Games Village.

Hildebrandt too had dropped from 55kg to 50kg but she took that decision two years ago.

"The weight cut has taken a lot of deliberate education and discipline," she said.

"I actually started the weight cut for these Games back at the end of 2022. I was like, 'Everything I do, from here on out, is going to feed into (Paris) 2024. So, it's going to be uncomfortable in 2023.'

"I'm so happy to say that I've had the smoothest cut of my life for Paris 2024. It paid off."