'The fire never left’: Vinesh Phogat comes out of retirement, eyes LA Olympics

Indian wrestler Vinesh Phogat on Friday announced that she will come out of retirement to take another shot at an elusive Olympic medal at the 2028 Los Angeles Games, saying “the fire never left” her and had only been buried under “exhaustion and noise”.

The 31-year-old had walked away from the sport after the heartbreak of the Paris Games last year, where she was disqualified for being 100 grams over the permissible weight limit ahead of her 50 kg final.

She appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) seeking a joint silver medal, but the verdict remained unchanged, prompting her to retire and enter politics. She later won election as an MLA from Haryana’s Julana constituency.

“People kept asking if Paris was the end. For a long time, I didn’t have the answer. I needed to step away from the mat, from the pressure, from the expectations — even from my own ambitions. For the first time in years, I allowed myself to breathe,” Vinesh wrote on social media.

“I took time to understand the weight of my journey — the highs, the heartbreaks, the sacrifices, the versions of me the world never saw. And somewhere in that reflection, I found the truth: I still love this sport. I still want to compete.”

Vinesh and her husband, Somvir Rathee, welcomed a baby boy in July. “In that silence, I found something I’d forgotten — the fire never left. It was only buried under exhaustion and noise. The discipline, the routine, the fight… it’s in my system. No matter how far I walked away, a part of me stayed on the mat.”

Vinesh said she will begin her journey towards LA28 with renewed spirit — and with her son by her side. “So here I am, stepping back toward LA28 with a heart that’s unafraid and a spirit that refuses to bow. And this time, I’m not walking alone — my son is joining my team, my biggest motivation, my little cheerleader on this road to the LA Olympics,” she said.

Vinesh has already scripted history as the first Indian woman wrestler to reach an Olympic gold-medal bout.
A three-time Olympian, she has also won gold medals at both the Asian Games and the Commonwealth Games.
(With PTI inputs)