Vinesh Phogat’s comeback bid faces WFI administrative hurdle in Brij Bhushan bastion Gonda

Two time world medalist Vinesh Phogat’s hopes of returning to competitive wrestling were dashed on Monday when the Wrestling Federation of India refused to let her complete the verification process that would have allowed her to take part at the Senior Open Ranking Tournament in Gonda.

“I came here to wrestle. I didn’t come here to eat bhelpuri. I came here to compete and I wasn’t allowed to do that,” Vinesh said. “They (Wrestling Federation of India) want that I give up wrestling and take  sanyas and accept defeat,” a visibly frustrated Vinesh told reporters after being informed by Wrestling Federation of India president Sanjay Singh that she would not be permitted to compete in the women’s freestyle competition beginning on Tuesday at the Nandini Nagar Mahavishwavidyalaya.

Vinesh’s hopes for being allowed to take part in the competition were already slim after the Wrestling Federation of India had issued her a show cause notice two days ago, leveling charges of anti-doping rule violations and disciplinary breaches and barred her from competition till June 26.

However, the 31-year-old who is making a comeback after giving birth to a son last July, still made the journey from her home in Kharkhoda, Haryana to Gonda in Uttar Pradesh on Monday, a day before the start of the women’s competition.

The decision had additional significance since Gonda is the home turf of former BJP Member of Parliament and erstwhile president of the Wrestling Federation of India Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who was accused of sexual harassment by six women wrestlers in 2023. On May 3, Vinesh had said that she was one of the complainants.

On Saturday, in a 14-page show-cause notice issued to Vinesh, the WFI said that she had failed to fulfill the mandatory six-month notice period applicable to a wrestler who wants to make a return to competition after retirement. The WFI wrote in the notice that Vinesh, in a letter to United World Wrestling (UWW) in December 2024, had said that she would be on a sabbatical till August 2025. She missed a dope test on December 18, days after informing the WFI, UWW and the Sports Authority of India that she was resuming training, it added.

Vinesh, the notice alleged, was also in violation of UWW competition rules after participating in two weight categories in the Asian and World Olympics Qualifier trials held by the ad-hoc committee in March 2024 when the WFI was suspended, the show-cause notice claimed.

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Finally the notice alleged that Vinesh, by not making the weight on the morning of the 50 kg final at the 2024 Paris Olympics, had ‘resulted in the loss of an Olympic medal for India’ and ‘damage to the reputation of Indian wrestling’, it went on.

Vinesh had been given 14 days to reply to the notice.

However, she suggested that the timing of the notice, just two days before she was to compete in Gonda, was a ‘conspiracy’ to prevent her return. “I didn’t even have time to fill the notice that they gave me on Saturday. I said I’ll give you (the WFI) a detailed answer in 14 days, but how can you find me guilty me before that? If you don’t get a reply after 14 days I understand, you can take action,” she said.

Vinesh held the former president of the wrestling federation of India responsible for her being denied the chance to compete. “It’s on his (Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh’s) orders that all this is happening. This event is happening in his college. Who else is going to be responsible?” she said.

Vinesh called into question the allegations raised by the WFI. “I had informed the WFI on December 12 ^th that I was back at training and I was looking to make a return. Why did it take them six months and for me to return to a competition to say I couldn’t compete. You could have said right then that I hadn’t fulfilled certain criteria. I had also registered for this competition in the end of April. But they waited until two days before I was to return to competition before they issued their notice,” she said.

While acknowledging she had missed a dope test as alleged by the national federation, Vinesh insisted that the reason was entirely innocent. “If I had violated any rule, then I would have been banned or given a show cause notice by NADA (National Anti Doping Agency) or WADA (World Anti Doping Agency) or I would have been banned. I had one whereabouts failure. But athletes are permitted three failures before being suspended. At that time I had become a mother and I was attending sessions of the parliament. I was subsequently tested at the start of this year and I’ve not failed any tests,” she said.

Vinesh also added that she had been cleared to compete by the International Testing Agency (ITA) of the United World Wrestling (UWW) at the start of the year. As evidence, Vinesh would posted on her social media, a screen shot of a email sent to her from International Testing Agency of UWW (the world federation of wrestling) according to which she was permitted to return to competition on January 1.

Vinesh added that while she was willing to show evidence to back her claims to the WFI president, he was adamant that she had to send her reply through a letter following which a committee would sit and decide on a response. “I told him (Sanjay Singh) that if he wanted to see the letter from UWW which allows me to compete, I’d show that to him. But he didn’t want to see it,” she alleged.

Speaking to Sportstar, WFI president Sanjay Singh however said Vinesh’s explanation to the points raised in the show cause notice were incomplete. “She has 14 days within which she has to answer the questions we have raised only after which she will be permitted to return to competition. I informed her that she will not be permitted to complete her verification to compete in this tournament, ” he said.

That timeline though would mean that Vinesh would more or less be out of competition for the remainder of this season. “I am not taking anyone’s rights. I am completely clean. All I’m asking is for a fair chance for myself. In the past people would accuse me of not wanting to give a trial but right now they don’t even want to let me get on the mat,” she said.

After not being allowed to complete her registration process, Vinesh left the WFI office and headed to the National Wrestling center located in the same venue as the Senior Open Ranking Tournament to train on the synthetic mat there but the doors of that facility had also been locked in the morning. She finally left the venue not having been able to step on the mat at all. 

Published on May 11, 2026