NEW DELHI: Six months after it banned the
Wrestling Federation of India
(
WFI
) for its failure to hold elections on time, United World
Wrestling
(
UWW
) on Tuesday lifted the suspension with immediate effect but with a few riders, which include protecting the protesting trio of Bajrang Punia, Vinesh Phogat and Sakshi Malik against any potential discrimination and ensuring their participation in the upcoming Olympic qualifying events for Paris 2024.
UWW, among other conditions, directed the national federation to re-convene the elections of its Athletes’ Commission no later than July 1, 2024, and provide the world body with written guarantees that all wrestlers will be considered for participation without any discrimination in all WFI events.
The lifting of suspension means that Indian wrestlers will be able to compete under their country’s flag at the next UWW event, including Asian Olympic Qualifiers from April 19-21 in Kyrgyzstan’s Bishkek and World Olympic Qualifiers from May 9-12 in Turkey’s Istanbul.
Under the suspension, which was imposed on August 23 last year, the country’s wrestlers had to compete as neutral athletes under a UWW flag.
The development has put a question mark on the future of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA)-convened three-member ad-hoc committee, which was tasked to run the day-to-day affairs of the WFI following its suspension by the sports ministry in late December for violating the national sports code and its own constitution.
While lifting the ban, UWW’s bureau, which met on February 9 in Lausanne, listed out certain conditions for the WFI to follow.
"The WFI has to re-convene the elections of its Athletes’ Commission. The candidates for this commission shall be active athletes or retired for no longer than four years. The voters shall be exclusively athletes. These elections shall take place during trials or any senior national championships where this operation can take place, but no later than July 1, 2024, and the WFI has to immediately provide UWW with written guarantees that all wrestlers will be considered for participation without any discrimination in all WFI events, in particular trials for the Olympic Games and any other major national and international events. This non-discrimination includes the three athletes who protested against alleged wrongdoings by the former president.”
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