Japan's Rei Higuchi, who won the gold medal at the Men's 57kg freestyle wrestling at the Paris Olympics 2024 has extended his support to Indian wrestler Vinesh Phogat.
Phogat was disqualified from competing in the Women's 50kg freestyle wrestling at this Paris Summer games for being over-weight by 100 grams. She had to return home without any medal despite the fact that she had reached the final of the event after beating the likes of Number 1 seeded Yui Sasaki of Japan.
The Indian Olympics Association (IOA) has now appealed to the Court of Arbitration of Sports (CAS), in the hope of a silver medal.
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What did Olympic gold medalist Rei Higuchi say about Vinesh Phogat's disqualification?
Rei Higuchi shared a post on the social media platform X (formerly twitter), empathizing with the Indian wrestler Vinesh Phogat's pain as he had suffered a similar misfortune a couple of years ago due to which he failed to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, which was hosted by his home country of Japan.
He quoted the tweet in reply to Phogat's post in which she announced her retirement from wrestling after the heartbreak at the Paris Olympics, in which she said:
"Mom, wrestling won, and I lost. Forgive me, your dream, my courage is all broken, I don't have any more strength now. Goodbye wrestling 2001-2024. Forgive me, I am always indebted to you all, for your support," Phogat said as a farewell post.
In reply, the Japanese 57kg freestyle wrestling Olympic champion replied, saying:
"I understand your pain the best. same 50g. Don't worry about the voices around you. Life goes on. Rising from setbacks is the most beautiful thing. Take a good rest."
Higuchi was also disqualified from the Asian Olympic qualifiers at Almaty, Kazakhstan, as he was overweight by 50 grams during the weigh-in, on the morning of his bout.
Three years later, he finished first at the Paris 2024 games, and won a gold medal, by securing victory on points by 4-2 against USA's Spencer Richard.
In his run up to the gold medal match, he had also defeated India's young wrestler Aman Sehrawat, who then went on to win the bronze medal match against Puerto Rico's Darian Toi Cruz.