In a shocking incident in the sports fraternity, Ritika Phogat, cousin of Geeta and Babita Phogat died by suicide on Wednesday after allegedly losing in a wrestling tournament.
Vijay Kumar Singh, Minister of State for Road Transport & Highways, confirmed the news on the microblogging site, Twitter.
“Terrible news that we lost #RitikaPhogat who had a brilliant career ahead. The world has changed from where it was some decades ago. Athletes are facing pressures which were not there earlier. An essential part of their training should be to deal with these pressures,” Singh tweeted.
Terrible news that we lost #RitikaPhogat who had a brilliant career ahead. The world has changed from where it was some decades ago. Athletes are facing pressures which were not there earlier. An essential part of their training should be to deal with these pressures.
— Vijay Kumar Singh (@Gen_VKSingh) March 18, 2021
Who is Ritika Phogat?
The 17-year-old wrestler was a member of the renowned wrestling family, ‘Phogat family’. She was a maternal-cousin of Geeta and Babita Phogat who made a historic mark in the wrestling field. Ritika had trained under Dronacharya Awardee Mahavir Singh Phogat, who was also reportedly present at the tournament. Mahavir is the father of Geeta and Babita.
Ritika was a resident of Jaitpur village in Rajasthan’s Jhunjhunu and had been practicing wrestling for over five years at the Mahavir Phogat Sports Academy in Haryana.
According to multiple media reports, Ritika was playing the state-level sub-junior, junior women, and men wrestling tournament. Ritika lost the final, which was played on March 14, by 1 point and hung herself to death after not being able to bear the disappointment of the loss.
The body was sent for post-mortem at the Civil Hospital, Dadri and later it was handed to her family.
