Mary Kom once revealed she lost 2 kgs in four hours |Courtesy-Olympics
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
- Vinesh Phogat was disqualified from the 2024 Paris Olympics
- Mary Kom had revealed she once lost 2 kgs in four hours
- Mary Kom is among India’s greatest sportspersons
India saw its biggest heartbreak in sporting history during the 2024 Paris Olympics as Vinesh Phogat was disqualified from the women’s 50 KG category after reaching the final and securing a medal for the country just hours before her gold medal bout.
Phogat had created history on Tuesday (August 6) after becoming the first Indian female wrestler to reach an Olympic final and the second women medalist from the country in the sport after Sakshi Malik. Phogat had the chance to become India’s first-ever women’s Olympic champion before fate took a tragic turn as news emerged that the three-time Commonwealth Games gold medalist failed her weigh-in on Wednesday (August 7) morning reportedly by just 100 grams.
While the news sent shockwaves around the country as it came as development, not many had heard before, but weight cutting remains one of the hardest parts of any athlete taking part in sports like wrestling and boxing who has to compete among strict weight regulations.
In 2018, Mary Kom revealed a story of how she shed 2 kg in four hours and later won the gold medal in the Silesian Women’s Boxing Championships in Poland. Kom stated she landed in the country just hours before the weigh-in and was 2 kg above her 48 kg limit.
“We landed in Poland at around 3:30 in the morning, and the general weigh-in was at around 7:30 a.m. At that point, I was a couple of kilograms above 48kg, the category I compete in. So, I had roughly four hours to shed that, or I would have been disqualified for being overweight at the time of general weigh-in,” said Mary Kom to PTI in an old interview.
“But I did skipping for an hour at a stretch, and just like that, I was ready. Thankfully, the flight we traveled in was nearly empty so I could sleep with my legs stretched, ensuring that I was not stiff on landing there. I don’t know how I would have been able to compete,” Mary Kom added.
Mary Kom is among India’s greatest sporting icons, having won the World Championships six times and also an Olympic bronze medal during the 2012 London Olympics.
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