While the wrestling world was in turmoil over Vinesh Phogat’s disqualification from the Paris Olympics 2024, Sarah Hildebrandt, who was set to compete against Vinesh for the women’s 50kg gold on Wednesday night, was facing her own emotional struggle.

It was an exceptionally unusual day for her. When Vinesh was disqualified for being 100 grams overweight during the mandatory weigh-in on match day, Hildebrandt assumed the gold medal was hers without having to compete in the final.

An hour later, her celebrations were cut short. Hildebrandt was informed that she would have to take on Yusneylis Guzman Lopez of Cuba to win the gold medal. Guzman Lopez, who had lost to Vinesh Phogat in a semifinal, was moved up from a bronze medal match.

There was a lot of celebrating,” the 30-year-old Hildebrandt said. “It was very strange. ‘Oh my God, I just won the Olympics.’ And then an hour later, it was like, psych, you did not win the Olympics. I was like, ‘Oh, this is very weird.’ So there had to be a reset.”

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Hildebrandt eventually got the elusive prize after beating Guzman Lopez 3-0 in the championship match, becoming the fourth US woman to win a wrestling gold medal.

‘As a big weight cutter myself, yeah, I feel for Vinesh’

Empathaising with Vinesh Phogat, The Olympic champion revealed that she also used different measures to reduce weight to pass the weigh-in process on the day of her matches. “As a big weight cutter myself, yeah, I feel for her,” Hildebrandt said. “She had an amazing day yesterday, did an insane feat and, you know, I don’t think she saw that happening, ending her Olympics like that. So, for sure, my heart goes out to her. I think she’s an amazing competitor, an amazing wrestler and person.

Reducing weight is a common practice in wrestling as athletes mostly compete in weight categories lower than their body weight to gain strength advantage.

Unfortunately, Vinesh, who announced her retirement on Thursday, couldn’t shed the excess weight on Wednesday morning. After securing three wins on Tuesday, she advanced to the finals of the 50-kilogram category. Despite cutting her hair, it wasn’t enough to make the weight. Team India reported that Phogat was 100 grams—about a fifth of a pound—over the weight limit.

Vinesh Phogat, who stunned four-time world and defending Olympic champion Yui Susaki of Japan in the first of her three matches on Tuesday, would have been the first women’s wrestler from India to compete for a gold medal. Instead, she left empty-handed.

Susaki eventually earned a bronze medal with a 10-0 win over Oksana Livach of Ukraine.

Hildebrandt, a bronze medalist in Tokyo, said her craziest wrestling experience before Wednesday was a power outage that caused a championship match to start 30 minutes late.

“So this tops that,” she said. “But yeah, that was definitely the most insane thing. I don’t even know. Craziness. At a loss of words for once.”

The decision by United World Wrestling sparked calls to add more weight classes and highlighted the dangers of extreme weight-cutting.

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