Vinesh Phogat's Disqualified Opponent Sarah Hildebrandt Wins Gold, Reveals She’s A ‘Big Weight Cutter’

At a time when the wrestling world was in turmoil following Vinesh Phogat's disqualification from the Paris Olympics 2024, Sarah Hildebrandt, who was supposed to face Vinesh for the women's 50kg gold on Wednesday night, was going through an emotional battle of her own.

It had been the most unusual day for Hildebrandt. When Vinesh was disqualified for being overweight by 100 grams during the mandatory weigh-in, Hildebrandt initially believed that the gold medal was hers without even competing in the final, as per media reports.

'Big Weight Cutter': Hildebrandt Reveals How She Do It

An hour later, her celebrations were abruptly cut short. Hildebrandt was informed that she would have to compete against Yusneylis Guzman Lopez of Cuba to secure the gold medal. Guzman Lopez, who had lost to Vinesh Phogat in the semifinal, was moved up from the 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."

Hildebrandt eventually secured the elusive prize after defeating Guzman Lopez 3-0 in the championship match, becoming the fourth US woman to win a wrestling gold medal, as reported by Hindustan Times.

Empathizing with Vinesh Phogat, Hildebrandt revealed that she also employs 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."

Weight reduction is a common practice in wrestling as athletes often compete in weight categories lower than their natural body weight to gain a strength advantage. Unfortunately, Vinesh, who announced her retirement on Thursday, could not reduce the excess weight on Wednesday morning. After three wins on Tuesday, she had reached the finals of the 50-kilogram category. Measures such as cutting her hair were not sufficient to shed the necessary weight. Team India stated that Phogat was 100 grams-about a fifth of a pound-over the weight limit, as reported by Hindustan Times.

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, mentioned that 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." United World Wrestling's decision has led to calls for adding weight classes and has highlighted the dangers of weight-cutting.