Vinesh Phogat has walked back into the spotlight she once thought she had left behind. On Friday, the 31-year-old confirmed she is coming out of retirement to resume her pursuit of an Olympic medal, saying the flame she believed had dimmed was never truly gone.
Her announcement, made on X, marks a dramatic turn in a journey shaped as much by heartbreak as by grit.
The Paris Olympics were meant to be her moment of vindication. She stormed through the women’s 50kg draw, defeating reigning Olympic champion Yui Susaki and top contenders Oksana Livach and Yusneylis Guzman to reach the final. No Indian woman had ever fought for an Olympic wrestling gold before.
Then, on the morning of the biggest bout of her life, everything unravelled. Vinesh was disqualified for weighing 100 grams over the limit. The ruling stunned India and prompted urgent questions about support systems and weigh-in protocols.
Her appeals to United World Wrestling and later to the Court of Arbitration for Sport were both rejected, leaving her Olympic campaign frozen in disbelief.
Calling it the most painful moment of her career, Vinesh stepped away from the sport and announced her retirement. She threw herself into reflection, recovery and, for a while, politics.
Last year, she won the Julana Assembly seat in Haryana by 6,000 votes, becoming one of the few active athletes to enter public office.
But silence has a way of clarifying what noise obscures. In her post, Vinesh wrote that she finally allowed herself to breathe after years of pressure, expectation and unrelenting ambition.
“Somewhere in that reflection, I found the truth. I still love this sport. I still want to compete,” she said.
She also revealed that the fire she feared she had lost was always there, buried under exhaustion.
“No matter how far I walked away, a part of me stayed on the mat,” she wrote, adding that she is now “stepping back toward LA28 with a heart that’s unafraid and a spirit that refuses to bow”.
Motherhood has altered the lens through which she sees her future. Vinesh and her husband, wrestler Somvir Rathee, welcomed a baby boy in July 2025.
She said her son will be part of the journey this time her “biggest motivation” and “little cheerleader”.
Her return adds her name to a small but inspiring list of Indian athletes who came back to elite competition after childbirth. It also reopens a chapter many thought had closed for good.
Vinesh’s relationship with the Olympics has long been turbulent. A knee injury ended her Rio 2016 campaign in the quarterfinals.
A shock defeat cut short her Tokyo run despite entering as the top seed. Paris was supposed to rewrite the script until it wrote another painful twist.
Now, as she returns to the mat, she does so with a clearer mind and a renewed purpose. The heartbreak remains part of her story, but it no longer defines its ending.
Vinesh Phogat is chasing the Olympics again. This time, on her own terms.