Vinesh Phogat’s beautiful run to the Paris Olympics ladies’s 50kg wrestling gold medal match grabbed headlines on Tuesday.
That includes in her third Olympics after twin heartbreaks in Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, Vinesh made an outstanding assertion along with her opening-round win over Japan’s Yui Susaki, a wrestling legend at 25 who had not tasted defeat in any worldwide contest throughout a profession of 90-plus bouts. Vinesh pulled off a last-gasp win to stun Susaki, the Tokyo Olympics 50kg champion who had gained the gold with out dropping a single level.
Vinesh then worn out Ukraina’s Oksana Livach by a 7-5 margin earlier than constricting Cuba’s Yusneylys Gusman by a 5-0 margin within the semi-final final night time.
Vinesh, who suffered an ACL tear throughout her Rio Olympics quarter-final within the 53kg class and bowed out with a defeat within the Tokyo Video games quarterfinals, scripted historical past as she grew to become the primary Indian lady to achieve a wrestling remaining on the Olympics. Regardless of the end result within the remaining, Vinesh would have charted India’s finest particular person efficiency on the ongoing Video games as but.
It takes a village – Vinesh PHOGAT 🇮🇳 speaking to her mom after changing into the primary Indian to achieve Olympic remaining in ladies’s wrestling#uww #wrestling #wrestleparis #olympics #paris2024 pic.twitter.com/Kh5SDCVR3T
— United World Wrestling (@wrestling) August 6, 2024
The 29-year-old Vinesh will now tackle USA’s Sarah Hildebrandt within the bid for a historic gold medal.
Who’s Sarah Hildebrandt, Vinesh’s gold-medal match opponent?
Hildebrandt, 30, has a prolific profession file in a profession that spans over a decade. The wrestler from Indiana has predominantly competed throughout her three weight courses, trimming down from 55kg to 53 and 50 through the years. Curiously, Hildebrandt had claimed the 50kg bronze medal on the Tokyo Video games the place Vinish was nonetheless competing within the 53kg class.
Hildebrandt claimed the bronze beating Ukraine’s Livach, Vinesh’s quarter-final opponent in Paris, by an amazing 12-1 margin. Hildebrandt can be a seven-time Pan American champion throughout three weight courses and likewise has 4 World Championship medals – two silver and two bronze.
Sarah Hildebrandt reacts after successful the match towards Otgonjargal Dolgorjav of Mongolia. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon
In her run to the ultimate in Paris, Hildebrandt took down China’s Feng Ziqi within the quarter-final earlier than trouncing Mongolian Dolgorjavyn Otgonjargal 5-0 within the semis.
Vinesh Phogat vs Sarah Hildebrandt head-to-head
Curiously, Vinesh and Hildebrandt have locked horns twice previously, each in 2019.
Of their first assembly, Hildebrandt was pinned down by Vinesh on the 2019 Dan Kolov and Nicola Petrov occasion. The American took the bronze as Vinesh claimed the silver within the match held in Bulgaria.
Vinesh later met Hildebrandt within the second Repechage spherical on the 2019 World Championships in Kazakhstan, beating the American on her method to the 53kg bronze medal.
Vinesh will intention to make it three in a row when she faces Hildebrandt within the 50kg gold-medal match in Paris on Wednesday night time, scheduled to happen from 9:45 PM IST onwards.