Explained: Why do wrestlers change weight for Olympics?
After a week and a half of competition at the Olympics 2021, the wrestling events have commenced. India will be fielding a strong contingent across various weight categories. Wrestlers like Vinesh Phogat, Bajrang Punia and Deepak Punia will be favorites to win medals for the country and are going to be in action very soon.
This year's Olympics have 18 weight categories in wrestling, which will feature a total of 288 athletes. As always, with the start of the wrestling competition comes the challenge of meeting the weigh-in deadline and being eligible to compete in the tournament.
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A lot of the competitors take great pain and go without food and water for long durations to meet the weight required to compete in their weight category. But why do they do it? We'll take a look in this article.
A wrestler's sacrifice to compete in the Olympics
Wrestling is a grueling sport that takes up a lot of energy. Grapplers can easily lose up to 2kgs of weight in a single day of training. To keep up with this, they consume a diet that helps them restore this weight and gives them the energy to train consistently.
As a result, it is difficult for wrestlers to stay in the range of the weight category they compete in. For example, a wrestler competing in the 52kg weight category would be close to 57-58kg in their routine life.
Competing in the lower weight category gives another advantage to the wrestler. If the wrestler somehow squeezes into a lower weight category and makes up the lost weight before the fights commence, they will be competing against lighter weighing competitors. Thus they have the advantage of strength and mass over the other.
This seems pretty simple in theory. However, it requires great control and sacrifice on the part of the wrestlers. In addition to starting their weight-cutting a couple of weeks prior to the Olympic event, grapplers stop eating and drinking 24 hours before the weigh-in is scheduled. They even aim to remove all the water inside the body.
Doing this has its own dangers such as severe dehydration and lack of proper body and brain functioning but that is a risk all wrestlers are willing to take. As soon as the weigh-in ends and the competition nears, the wrestlers gradually restart their intake and gain the lost kilos.
A team of highly trained physicians and nutritionists goes into making a wrestler compete at the Olympics, besides a coach.
Also read - India at Olympics 2021