The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) has unveiled a new selection policy that makes attendance at national camps mandatory to be eligible for national selection, bars wrestlers from training independently and mandates Olympic Games quota-winning athletes to appear in a final one-bout selection trial.
The policy was discussed and cleared at WFI’s recent general council meeting during the Nationals in Ahmedabad.
It was also presented to the Sports Authority of India (SAI) for feedback and a review.
No National camp, no India jersey
“Participation in the National Coaching Camp is mandatory for all wrestlers, including elite and iconic athletes. To be eligible for the camp, a wrestler must have won a medal in the National Championship of the concerned year,” the policy under the sub-head National Coaching Camps, stated.
In Focus podcast | Aman Sehrawat’s big miss: Does Indian wrestling have a weight-cutting problem?
“Once selected, wrestlers are required to train exclusively at the designated national camp. No athlete is permitted to train independently at any other venue,” it added.
It means that Vinesh Phogat, who recently announced her comeback from retirement, will have to prove herself at the domestic level before being reckoning for a spot in the national team.
The policy made it clear that a failure to attend the camp will make the wrestler “ineligible to participate in the selection trials”.
The policy has also made a provision to keep a list of reserve wrestler, who will be asked to do the national duty in case of injury to selected athlete. The WFI policy makes it clear that “past performances will not be considered for selection trials.”
“We are not going to give trials exemption to anyone. No athlete can sit on past achievements. In the past, few athletes had asked for exemption which is not fair to up and coming wrestlers, WFI will give equal opportunity to all,” a WFI official told PTI.
The policy mentions, that “to be eligible, a wrestler must have won a medal in at least one of the following competitions of the concerned year- National Championship, Federation Cup and any other WFI-recognised competition.”
Selection trials must for international competitions
The policy also states that trials are mandatory for teams representing India in major international competitions such as Olympic Games, Asian Games, Continental Championships and World Championships.
The objective of the trials is to provide fair opportunity, assessment of form and fitness, transparency, accountability and merit-based representation.
The WFI asserted that Olympic quotas are awarded to the nation and not to individual athletes and it reserves the right to conduct trials for Olympic participation.
WFI made it clear that quota winner will not compete in the initial trials and will fight it out with the winner of the trials and if he/she loses, will be given a second chance to reclaim the quota.
The selection committee will be headed by the WFI President. It will also include the secretary general or vice-president and will have either a Dronacharya, Arjuna or Dhyanchand awardee apart from chief coach of that discipline and the foreign coach.
Apart from this, the chief coach can recommend barring a wrestler from trials on count of indiscipline or poor attendance. The selection committee may uphold the recommendation and WFI reserves the right to take disciplinary action against wrestlers found overweight during international competition.
The WFI had recently banned Paris Games bronze winner Aman Sehrawat for being overweight before lifting the suspension.
Published – December 18, 2025 03:54 pm IST
