CAS: 'Draconian' rules but athlete responsible for maintaining weight

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) while rejecting wrestler Vinesh Phogat’s appeal against her disqualification reasoned that it is an athlete’s responsibility to stay within the weight limit and no relief can be provided on that count but termed as “draconian” the consequence of failing the weigh-in on the second day.

Vinesh was disqualified from the Paris Olympics after failing to make weight on the second day of the competition. Scheduled to compete in the gold medal bout in the women’s 50kg category, Vinesh was found overweight by 100g on August 8.

The UWW rules state that a wrestler has to clear the weighin on both days of the competition. While UWW allows a 2kg weight tolerance in many international competitions such as Ranking Series event, there is no such buffer at the Olympics.