With their protest over, the focus for Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia will now turn to resuming their sporting life. It's a busy year (and more) ahead of them, with several high-profile competitions acting as a pathway to, and culminating in, the Paris Olympics in August 2024. The crucial question is: how can they make it to Paris?
The major issue here is that, given their lives since January, they are currently not in a physical condition to compete either nationally or internationally. The good news for them, though, is that the qualification period for the Olympics starts only on September 16, 2023 and goes up to May 12, 2024.
What are the qualification routes for Paris 2024?
You essentially have three stages at which you can earn your country a quota - one per category per country max. These are quotas won by the country federation and not the individual athlete. Once a quota is won, a federation could also hold trials to decide who to send within that quota.
• Stage I: 2023 World Championships (September 16-24) -- Four medallists (gold, silver, and the two bronzes) get one quota each. Plus, one for the winner of a bout between the two bronze-medal-match losers.
• Stage II: 2024 Asian Qualifiers (April 12-14) -- Two finalists get a quota each. Each continent holds their own qualifiers.
• Stage III: 2024 World Qualification Tournament (May 9-12) - The two finalists plus the winner of a bout between the two third-placed athletes get a quota each.
Countries who have won a quota at the first stage cannot participate in the same category in the second and winners from the second cannot compete in the third.
How does an Indian qualify to compete in these three stages?
Through qualification tournaments held by the Wrestling Federation of India, i.e., selection trials. As it stands, the protesting wrestlers would not be at the physical level needed to compete for the trials that the WFI would conduct for the Worlds or the Asiad (both events in September).
Wrestlers vs WFI: Timeline of protest from pavement sit-in to court petition
The date for the Asian Games and Worlds trials have not been set yet. In the meantime, Bajrang and Vinesh are set to train in Kyrgyzstan and Hungary, respectively, after the Sports Ministry approved their training tours.
When was the last time WFI held one of these trials?
In March 2023, for the Asian Championships. It was held by the oversight committee the sports ministry had appointed for the functioning of the WFI. This was skipped by Bajrang, Vinesh and Sakshi after they had said they wouldn't compete until the inquiry against the WFI was completed.
There was a controversy in the trials held before this one -- where men's gold medalists from the Commonwealth Games were excused from trials for the 2022 Worlds, but women's gold medal winners were not. These trials were held around twenty days after the completion of the CWG.
Bajrang and Vinesh (who won her trial easily), went on to win bronze -- the only Indians to medal at the Worlds last year. Bajrang now has the most Worlds medals for an Indian (four) and Vinesh the most for an Indian woman (two).
Learning amidst a rebellion: Vinesh, Bajrang find silver lining out of competition
Who would likely compete in place of the three protesting wrestlers?
No one nationally has really come close to beating either of Vinesh Phogat or Bajrang Punia in these trials, but in their absence India was represented by Antim Panghal (Asian junior champion) who won silver and Anuj Kumar, who lost in the quarters. While Antim is a clear contender in Vinesh's category (53kg) and one for the future, there are no clear front-runners in the men's 65kg which is Bajrang's category.
Sakshi (62kg) meanwhile has had stiff competition for a while now. Last year, she had beaten Sonam Malik to make it to the CWG (where she won gold) but that had been her first win against the younger opponent in five attempts. Sakshi had then skipped worlds trials due to injury (along with every other women's CWG medalist except Vinesh).
Wait, what about the Asian Games?
This a Non-quota event for the Olympics. The wrestling events at the Asiad start on October 4, about ten days after the World Championships end. However, trials for both events are now under discussion by the ad-hoc committee appointed to run the affairs of the WFI.