Phogat family waits in hope for 20-year-old Olympic dream to come true
Mahavir Phogat, the patriarch of the family, says he will go to Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi if Vinesh Phogat comes home with Olympic gold. Vinesh, who will compete in 53kg, will have the expectation of fulfilling the 20-year-old dream Mahavir saw. Incidentally, she will not be alone. Bajrang Punia, Mahavir's son-in-law, is also part of this dream now.
Sangeeta, the youngest sister in the Phogat family and Bajrang Punia’s wife had an exclusive chat with Sportskeeda. She said:
"When papa (father) put Geeta and Babita in wrestling, he always kept saying India will certainly win a gold medal at the Olympics one day. And the first one to do so, will be from a Phogat family."
Geeta Phogat, one of the pioneers of current Indian women’s wrestling, qualified for the 2012 London Games. She was the first Indian female to compete at the Olympics. In 2016, her sister Babita and cousin Vinesh Phogat qualified for the Rio Games.
At the previous two Olympic editions, fulfilling the dream was an outside possibility but it is a different scenario in Tokyo. Both Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia enter the Tokyo Olympics as heavy favorites to grab the gold medal. The duo have improved significantly since their 2018 Asian Games gold medal-winning performance.
“They have been in such good form. The biggest strength both Vinesh and Bajrang have is that they are mentally very strong. When Vinesh was injured in 2016, she was determined to bounce back. The same goes for Bajrang. When he recently injured his knee so close to the Tokyo Olympics, he focussed on strength training. These two know how to find the positive from negative,” Sangeeta says.
Sangeeta, who herself is a wrestler, is also working on her comeback. She is training at the Inspire Institute of Sports (IIS). While she’ll be cheering for her kin from Bengaluru, other members of the Phogat family will be watching the bouts from Haryana.
Ritu Phogat, though, will be rooting for Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat from Singapore. She is currently training at the One Championship Center. While it is exciting to cheer for the Indian wrestlers, the Phogat family understands it will not be a walk in the park.
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Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat have to overcome many battles
Bajrang Punia has been seeded second in the 65 kg weight category. The 27-year-old is in fine form this year, winning medals in every major competition he participated in. He won two gold and as many silver medals from four tournaments. At the Tokyo Olympics, though, it will be a different ball game altogether.
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Bajrang Punia won all four competitions this year in a depleted group. The majority of his big challengers were missing from it. And when the match-up finally happened at the Asian Championship final in April against Takuto Otoguro, Bajrang Punia withdrew due to an elbow injury.
He is yet to put his newly learned techniques to the test against the best. And now it will be the Tokyo Olympics where he will get a chance to do it.
Vinesh Phogat, on the other hand, is the top seed in 53 kg. The current Asian champion has started hitting the peak, a glimpse of which came at the recently concluded Poland Open. A matchup against Mayu Mukaida, her biggest challenger, was possible at the Asian Championships but failed to materialize after Japanese wrestler withdrew from the competition.
Besides the competition on the mat, the duo also face a challenge from the raging COVID-19 pandemic in Japan. The International Olympic Association (IOC) released a Sports-Specific Regulation (SSR) in case an athlete gets infected. Sangeeta, however, has advised her kin to take extra precautions and focus on the competition.
“It is a tough situation. Besides the Olympic pressure, there is the pressure of not getting infected by COVID-19. Both Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punai will have to take extra precautions now and we hope they fulfill the gold medal dream of my father,” she says.