New Delhi [India], August 17 (ANI): Wrestler Vinesh Phogat held a roadshow at the national capital on Saturday after returning from the Paris Olympics.
Bajrang Punia, Sakshi Malik, and Congress MP Deepender Singh Hooda were also present at the roadshow.
Sakshi Malik said, “What Vinesh has done for the country, very few people do it. She should get more respect and appreciation…”
Meanwhile, Bajrang Punia said, “The countrymen are giving her tremendous love, you can see how the country welcomed her.”
Earlier on Saturday, Wrestler Vinesh Phogat arrived at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi National Airport to a rousing reception.
“I thank all the countrymen, I am very fortunate,” said Vinesh as she received a warm welcome upon her return from Paris where she became the first Indian woman wrestler to make the final of an Olympics.
The Haryana-born wrestler turned emotional and broke down into tears during the reception.
Vinesh was however disqualified from the 50 kg gold medal bout after she was found to be 100 gms overweight. On Wednesday the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) dismissed her petition to be awarded a joint silver. She announced her retirement from wrestling on August 8, a day after her disqualification.
A huge crowd gathered at the Delhi Airport to welcome the 29-year-old. Fans showered flower petals upon her arrival in the national capital.
On Friday Vinesh penned an emotional note on her life in wrestling leaving a small window open for a possible return to competitive wrestling.
“To my team, my fellow Indians and my family, it feels like the goal that we were working towards and what we had planned to achieve is unfinished, that something might always remain missing, and that things might never be the same again. Maybe under different circumstances, I could see myself playing till 2032, because the fight in me and wrestling in me will always be there. I cannot predict what the future holds for me, and what awaits me in this journey next, but I am sure that I will continue to fight always for what I believe in and for the night thing,” she wrote in the post.
Vinesh opened up on how she did not even know what the Olympics were as a “small girl from a small village” and all she dreamt was of “long hair, flaunting a mobile phone” and other things that any young girl would do.
“Olympic rings: as a small girl from a small village I did not know what was the Olympics or what these rings meant. As a small girl, I dream of things like long hair, flaunting a mobile phone in my hand and doing all these things that any young girl would normally dream of,” said Vinesh.
Talking about her father, a bus driver who passed away when she was young and her mother, who is suffering from stage three cancer shortly after her husband’s death, Vinesh said, “My father, an ordinary bus driver, would tell me that one day he would see his daughter fly high in a plane while he would drive on the road below, that only I would turn my father’s dreams into a reality. I do not want to say it, but I think I was his favourite child because I was the youngest of the three. When he used to tell me about this I used to laugh at the absurd thought of it, it did not mean much to me. My mother, who could have a whole story written on the hardships of her life, only dreamt that all her children would one day live a life better than she did. Being independent and her kids being up on their own feet was enough of a dream for her. Her wishes and dreams were much more simple than my father’s.”
Vinesh’s struggles have touched a cord amongst wrestling fans and a symbol of it was the huge reception she got on her return home from the Olympics. (ANI)
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