WFI President Sanjay Singh: Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) President Sanjay Singh on Wednesday demanded action against the support staff associated with Vinesh Phogat after her exit from the Paris Olympics, saying that the mistake of not keeping the weight within the limit before the final is not acceptable. Vinesh was disqualified hours before her gold medal match against America's Sarah Hildebrandt, causing a major setback to India.

On the second day of the weighing process, she was found to be 100 grams overweight and was disqualified as a result. Cuban wrestler Guzman Lopez Usnelis, who lost in the semi-finals against Vinesh, will now face Hildebrandt for the gold medal. Vinesh is training with her personal coach Woler Akos of Belgium and has also worked with South African mental conditioning coach Wayne Lombard.

"It is not Vinesh's fault. She was performing brilliantly. The coach, support staff, physio and nutritionists should take full responsibility," Sanjay told PTI. "They should have kept an eye on her all the time to ensure that nothing like this happened. There should be an investigation into how this happened and how she exceeded the weight limit," he added.

The WFI president said, "I request the Indian government to take action against all those responsible." Vinesh had chosen to train with Akos and the Indian government had approved his travel with Vinesh for the Games. Like the Indian national coach, Akos was also given full recognition. It cannot be denied that Akos has played an important role in molding Vinesh's game in a new way.

Akos has been working with Vinesh since 2018 and has been bringing technical and tactical changes to her game. Vinesh has won two World Championship bronze medals with him. That Vinesh was at the top of her game was evident when she defeated the previously unbeaten Yui Susaki. The Indian wrestler adopted a wait-and-see strategy and made the match-winning move in the dying moments of the match.

Akos, who was present during Vinesh's match, was seen crying when the Indian wrestler confirmed her place in the final.

The WFI president said that going forward, the federation will allow only UWW (United World Wrestling) certified coaches to train Indian wrestlers.

Sanjay said, "Wrestling Federation of India will try its best to appoint coaches who have passed the level one and level two courses of UWW."

He added, “We will also ensure that the wrestlers practice with WFI coaches and UWW officials so that such incidents never happen again.” When specifically asked if WFI will allow personal coaches or not, Sanjay said the matter will be discussed.

He said, “The full WFI committee will decide how to proceed in this matter.”

Sanjay said he is meeting Indian Olympic Association president PT Usha and will approach UWW chief Nenad Lalovic to see if something can be done. "I have spoken to the IOA (Indian Olympic Association) and UWW and I have also sent letters asking them to look into the matter and allow her to compete," he said.

Later, Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya also made a statement in the Lok Sabha. He said that the government had provided financial assistance of Rs 70 lakh to Vinesh for training and competitions abroad to prepare for the Games where she traveled with her support staff which included Akos, Lombard, Ashwini Jeevan Patil (physio), Mayank Singh (mental conditioning specialist) and Arvind (wrestling partner). She trained in Spain, France and Hungary.

The Sports Minister also said that financial assistance of more than Rs 1 crore 13 lakh was provided to them during the Tokyo Olympic cycle.