By Amlan Chakraborty
PARIS (Reuters) – After days of near-starvation in their single-minded pursuit of Olympic glory, it is finally time for some sweet indulgence for the wrestlers who medalled in Paris.
Most wrestlers compete in a category below their natural weight to fight a weaker opponent and while the reward is huge, the process is brutal as well as risky.
India’s Vinesh Phogat was disqualified hours before her 50kg gold medal bout in Paris after she was found 100gms over the limit despite her drastic measures to fit into the category.
Japan’s Rei Higuchi shared his own weight-cut struggles after winning the men’s 57kg gold on Friday.
“Fifty-seven kgs for an adult man, it’s hard to maintain because if you overeat even a little bit, you have to change your weight category,” Higuchi told reporters.
Like Phogat, Higuchi has also seen a weight-loss mishap ruin his Olympic dreams.
The 28-year-old, also a silver medallist at Rio, missed his home Games in Tokyo after he was found to be 50gms above the limit on the day of competition in an Olympic qualifier.
Higuchi’s current weight-loss drill before competition is a three-month process during which he cooks his own meals, consumes a protein-heavy dqiet and shuns any juice.
FRENCH MACARONS
Liberated, even if temporarily, from the constant weight watch, Higuchi now wants to indulge himself.
“I’m in Paris. I love French macarons, so I would love to drown myself in French macarons,” he said.
Silver medallist Spencer Lee said athletes needed extreme discipline to fit into their categories.
“It is a pretty small weight class for grown men,” he said of the 57kg division.
“Making weight two days in a row is pretty difficult. I think it’s a testament to everyone being dedicated to their training and their nutrition.”
The American said he would allow himself “something sweet, probably” after claiming the silver.
Weight anxiety gave India’s Aman Sehrawat a sleepless night, literally, as he had to drop 4.6kgs in the 10 hours between his semi-final bout on Thursday and Friday morning’s weigh-in before the bronze medal contest.
The 21-year-old said he exercised for two hours and then hit the gym where he worked out from midnight till 3 a.m. to make the cut.
“It was pretty difficult to achieve that scale,” he said.
His reward was a bronze medal and the permission from his coaches to eat ‘kaju katli’, a popular diamond-shaped festival sweet in India.
The other bronze medallist, Gulomjon Abdullaev of Uezbekistan, does not have a sweet tooth though.
“I would eat Uzbek Plov rice,” he said referring to the traditional one-pot rice dish.
(Reporting by Amlan Chakraborty in Paris; editing by Ken Ferris)
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