Paris Olympics 2024 Wrestling: Vinesh Phogat vs Sarah Hildebrandt head-to-head record
The three-time Commonwealth Games champion from India, Vinesh Phogat will cross swords with the Pan American Championships gold medallist wrestler from the USA, Sarah Hildebrandt in the final bout of the 50 kg weight category at the Paris Olympics 2024 on Wednesday, August 7.
Moving into the head-to-head details, Vinesh Phogat is leading by 2-0 with these two wrestlers having competed against each other way back in 2019. However, those bouts were up in the 53 kg weight category bouts and both wrestlers have improved technically since then.
They first locked horns in February 2019 at the Dan Kolov - Nikola Petrov competitions when the Indian wrestler Vinesh Phogat came out by 4-2 to win the bout. It was Phogat’s first tournament after moving to the 53 kg weight category.
Their second head-to-head instance came at the Senior World Championships in September 2019. Vinesh Phogat completely dominated her opponent from the USA on that occasion as she won the repechage bout by 8-2.
Vinesh Phogat, who looked technically strong in the bout, started off the first period with a 4-0 lead. She extended it by adding four more points to lead at 8-0. In the dying moments of the bout, Sarah could add only two points to her tally to go down by 2-8. She went on to defeat Maria Prevolaraki from Greece to secure the bronze medal
At the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Sarah settled for a bronze medal after losing her semi-final contest by 7-10 over Sun Yanan from China. In the bronze medal affair, Sarah defeated Oksana Livach from Ukraine.
In May 2023, Sarah secured her third consecutive gold medal at the Pan American Championships. Furthermore, she secured a medal for three consecutive years at the World Wrestling Championships.
On the other hand, Vinesh Phogat, who has a career-high world ranking of No. 1 in the UWW World Rankings, secured two bronze medals at the World Wrestling Championships in 2019 and 2022.
Though she missed out on a medal at the Rio Olympics in 2016 due to an injury, she would be aiming for gold this time around. Vanesa Kaladzinskaya defeated Vinesh in the quarter-final bout to end her medal hopes at the Tokyo Olympics.
Vinesh Phogat at the Paris Olympics 2024
At the ongoing Paris Olympics 2024, Vinesh Phogat created history by becoming the first international wrestler to defeat Japan’s World No. 1 Yui Susaki. Also, she became the first female Indian wrestler to secure the final spot at the Games.
In the quarter-finals, Vinesh defeated Ukraine's Oksana Livach by 7-5 to advance to the semi-finals. She continued her dominance in the semi-final with an impressive win by 5-0 over Cuba's Guzman Lopez Yusneylis to storm into the final.