Dangal For Real – Phogat Sisters Kicked Out Of National Camp For Alleged Indiscipline

In what could only be described as a dangal in real life, the Phogat sisters – Geeta, Babita, Ritu and Sangeeta – were ousted from the Wrestling Federation of India’s (WFI) national camp for “serious indiscipline”. The WFI has said that the sisters would have some explaining to do in order to get back in and that Babita had claimed to be injured.

The ouster from the camp could well translate into the wrestlers being barred from participating in the Asian Games trials scheduled to be held later this year. However, this may not be the case if they are able explain their absence satisfactorily to the WFI.

Apart from the Phogat sisters, Olympic Bronze medalist Sakshi Mallik’s husband Satyawart Kandian hs also been barred.

While Babita told the media that she was injured and hadn’t got any show cause notice yet, Ritu and Sangeeta said that they were waiting for their visas to Russia for a training camp which the WFI denied knowing about. Babita added that Geeta was training at a private facility in Bengaluru.

Geeta Phogat was the first Indian to win a gold medal in wrestling at the 2010 Commonwealth Games held in Delhi following which she became the first Indian female wrestler to qualify for the 2012 Olympics. Babita followed up with a gold for herself at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games.