Vinesh Phogat says learnt courage from mother: ‘Widowed at 32, had cancer, fought society on her own’

After she had defeated Cuba’s Yusneylis Guzman in the semi-final to blaze her way into the Paris Olympics gold medal match against USA’s Sarah Hildebrandt on Wednesday, Vinesh Phogat was asked to stop by a giant screen a little distance away from the wrestling mats. There, on the other end of a very public video call, was Vinesh Phogat’s smiling mother.

While the noise in the stands made it impossible for the duo to have a conversation, Vinesh Phogat could be heard making her mother a promise: “Gold lana hai. Gold. (I will get gold medal)”

Vinesh and her mother share a special bond, one which the wrestler herself declared in an interview with The Indian Express for an Idea Exchange last year was “stronger than the bond between friends.”

At the peak of the wrestlers’ protests against the Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh in 2023, Vinesh Phogat was a guest for The Indian Express’ Idea Exchange, where she was asked where she gets her courage from.

Japan’s Yui Susaki and India’s Vinesh Phogat, right, compete in the round of 16 of the women’s freestyle 50kg wrestling match, at Champ-de-Mars Arena, during the 2024 Summer Olympics, Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP/PTI)

“It’s from my mother. Our relationship is stronger than the bond between friends. We share everything. She was about 32 when she became a widow. I feel sad thinking about it. She struggled for us. In that struggle, we didn’t even realise when we grew up. A single woman, she would be taunted by others, how they treated her. Before my father died, my mother didn’t even step out of the house; she didn’t even know what the price of tomatoes was. And then suddenly, tragedy struck,” said Vinesh Phogat, who was one of the faces of the protest against Brij Bhushan along with Olympic medallists Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia.

In the interview, Vinesh Phogat also revealed that her mother had undergone treatment for cancer and the courage she had shown then was inspiring.

“When she suffered from cancer, she would go to Rohtak for chemotherapy. Totally illiterate, she didn’t even know where to sit, where to get off. No one supported her. We grew up seeing her struggle. If a single woman like that, illiterate, could fight the society on her own and made us big wrestlers, then we can do it too.

“If we (wrestlers) don’t speak out today, then all the struggles of my mother would have gone to waste. I won medals, that’s all right, but if we win this battle, she will proudly say, ‘I gave birth to them’. I am proud that my mother showed so much strength and character; I guess that’s in me as well. Even my father was like that. I am also like that,” Vinesh Phogat said.

Vinesh also said that it was from her parents that she had picked up the trait of being a straight talker.

“I speak straight and honestly, and say what I feel. It’s been misunderstood. Some feel, ‘arre yeh toh moofatt hai’ (she’s outspoken), but what can I tell them. I speak my mind. What’s inside is what comes out. Take it or leave it, and go home,” Vinesh chuckled.

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