
Wrestler Antim Panghal, who crashed out of the Olympics 2024 women’s 53 kg wrestling category after a 10-0 defeat against Turkey's Zeynep Yetgil in her opening bout, had reportedly starved herself for 48 hours before her fight to pass the weigh-in.
According to a report in Times of India, Antim Panghal did not eat a morsel of food and had minimum water intake, which left her body weak and completely dehydrated.
Antim Panghal was overweight ahead of her bout and wanted her sister, Nisha, who is her dietician and masseur to manage her meal intake. Since her sister was staying outside the village, Panghal was virtually left to manage her weight herself.
As per the report, the starvation left Antim Panghal without any energy to take on the mat against Yetgil. This report comes after Vinesh Phogat’s disqualification from the final bout for the gold medal made headlines. Phogat was disqualified for being 100 gm overweight.
Moreover, the wrestler also landed in trouble for disciplinary breach at the Olympic Games' athletes village in Paris. She had tried to facilitate her sister's entry into the athletes village through her accreditation card. They were then summoned by the police who also alerted the Indian Olympic Association (IOA).
As a punishment, the IOA decided to promptly fly Panghal and her support staff back home. She returned to India on Friday.
Panghal said that she did not intend to do anything wrong but is expected to face disciplinary action for violating the rules of the athletes’ village. The wrestler said she was unwell and gave her accreditation card to Nisha and sent her to the Games Village to collect her belongings. Nisha was stopped by the security personnel and both were summoned to the police station.
Moreover, Panghal's support team, coaches Bhagat Singh and Vikas, were also involved in a separate matter involving a Parisian taxi driver and the police. They allegedly refused to pay the cab fare and behaved inappropriately with the driver, who reported the incident to the police.