Former Olympic bronze medallist Yogeshwar Dutt stated that taking retirement is a personal call of an athlete and called it the "saddest" part of a player's career, following grappler Sakshi Malik's retirement announcement from wrestling. Olympic medalist Sakshi, who was one of the faces of wrestlers' protest against former WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh over sexual harassment allegations, on Thursday announced that she is quitting wrestling after Brij Bhushan's aide Sanjay Singh was elected as the new president of the federation.
"Taking retirement is a personal call of an athlete, but I will say that it is very sad for a player to leave their game in any situation or condition. Taking retirement is the saddest part of their career because they give their life to the game and earn recognition as well as respect because of it. It is their decision as well as it depends on time," Yogeshwar told ANI.
Sakshi, distraught and emotional, broke down as she left the venue following a press conference in the national capital after announcing her retirement.
Sakshi's mother Sudesh Malik talked about her daughter's decision to retire and stated that it is a loss for the entire country.
"It is the saddest day not only for my family but for the entire country. She was on the road for 40 days because of sexual harassment, because of that fight a new federation was set to be formed and now those people have come back again. Sakshi loved wrestling it will take time for her to get past it. She wanted to bring one more medal, she was working hard so this dream was broken and it is a big loss for our century," Sudesh told ANI.
During the media interaction, the renowned wrestler put her shoes on the table at the press conference as she announced her decision to quit wrestling.
"We slept for 40 days on the roads and a lot of people from several parts of the country came to support us. If Brij Bhushan Singh's business partner and a close aide is elected as the president of WFI, I quit wrestling," she said, accompanied by some other wrestlers who were part of the protest.
"We have made demands for a woman president. If the president would be a woman, harassment would not happen. But, there was no participation of women earlier and today you can see the list, not even a single woman was given a position. We had fought with complete strength but this fight will continue. The wrestlers of the new generation have to fight," she added.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)