Hyderabad: Indian wrestler Vinesh Phogat, who was disqualified from the women's 50 kg freestyle wrestling events final at the Paris Olympics 2024 for being 100 grams overweight than the prescribed weight on the morning of the gold medal bout, received a gold medal from the people of her native village after the 29-year-old returned to India.
Vinesh arrived at Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi on Saturday morning following the conclusion of her medal-less campaign. She was welcomed by the many villagers on her way from the airport to her native village Balali because of which it took her 13 hours to cover the distance of 135 km.
Vinesh was honoured with the gold medal by her supporters and 'Khap' Panchayats during her return to his home. Following her grand reception, an overwhelmed Vinesh, while addressing the gathering, asserted that even 1000 Olympic gold medals pale in comparison to this honour.
Apart from this, the grappler received a reward of ₹21,000 from the stage while ₹100 and ₹500 were announced by the crowd. Alongside this, she was also given a necklace of Indian rupee notes.
Vinesh phogat gets gold medal in her village 🏆🏆🏆🏆#vineshphogat pic.twitter.com/sCBQoaZ7EV
— Bolly Gud News (@bollygudnews) August 18, 2024
Meanwhile, Vinesh's fellow wrestlers 2020 Tokyo and 2016 Rio Olympics bronze medalists Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Malik and Congress MP Deepender Hooda were the few names who were present at the airport to receive the Indian wrestler.
Notably, the Paris Games was Vinesh's third Olympics and following her disqualification from the summit clash, the wrestler announced her retirement from the sport through social media.
The Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) had rejected Vinesh's appeal to award her a joint silver medal, but the court dismissed her plea on August 18 after postponing the date of results three times.
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