Wrestling with the system: Rudraneil Sengupta on the sport’s athlete-led revolt

Generations of athletes, activists and journalists have railed in vain against the practice of federations being ruled by political strongmen (Singh is only the latest in a long tradition) who have scant knowledge about the sport they are supposed to nurture, and little to no regard for its athletes. Federation presidents have routinely treated these bodies as personal fiefdoms, and athletes and coaches as their lowly subjects. They’ve clung to power for its own sake, or for personal gain.

Committed journalists have fought to bring about some change. The practice of sending truckloads of officials and administrators to major events at the taxpayer’s expense, sometimes even at the cost of accommodating much-needed coaching staff, ended after years of media campaigns, around the time of the 2012 London Olympics.

The National Sports Development Code, introduced in 2011, ushered vital reforms. It set limits on how long an official could remain in one post, and created some accountability by making it mandatory for federations to submit detailed developmental plans in order to receive government funding.

Former sportspeople pushed to be included and, as a result, PT Usha became the first Olympian and international medallist to serve as president of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), in December 2022.

But sportspeople standing together to bring down a federation? That was new. No federation had been disbanded in this manner in the history of Independent India. Two committees have now been formed to investigate the charges of mismanagement and, far more seriously, sexual misconduct levelled against Singh.

Sadly, a series of moves from the protesting wrestlers has since undermined their cause. They first insisted that a person of their choosing be appointed to the independent investigating committee constituted by IOA. Worse, the person they installed is former Olympian wrestler Babita Phogat, whose cousins are Vinesh Phogat, the de facto leader of the protests, and Priyanka Phogat (Vinesh’s sister), also a wrestler and part of the protests. Babita’s sister Sangita Phogat, meanwhile, is married to Olympic medallist Bajrang Punia, another prominent figure in the movement.

There’s more. The wrestlers are now demanding that Olympic medallist Yogeshwar Dutt be dropped from the investigating committee, for allegedly leaking information about the probe. There is no clear evidence that Dutt did this, so the optics are terrible.

Meanwhile, in a brutish move, the protesters have declared that no Indian wrestler will participate in a tournament until the investigation has been concluded. This is the beginning of wrestling season. Young men and women have spent months preparing. Why take this time away from them?

Amid all the uncertainty, the global governing body United World Wrestling shifted the Asian Championships out of New Delhi, to Almaty in Kazakhstan. Now it seems like no Indian will participate there in April.

It’s a sad case of an inspiring movement being derailed, and star athletes now doing what unfit administrators have done all along: sacrificing their sport at the altar of power politics.