Three and a half ounces, roughly the weight of a small banana, three slices of bread, a deck of cards.

       That amount is usually insignificant, but is hugely consequential in sports with weight classes. This small but prohibited excess during a weigh-in on Wednesday morning kept the wrestler Vinesh Phogat from a chance to become the first woman from India, the world’s most populous nation, to win an Olympic gold medal in any event.

       “It’s very shocking,” Virender Singh, Phogat’s coach, said in a brief interview, adding, “If she got the gold medal, it would have been a turning point for Indian sports.”

       Phogat, 29, entered these Games as a celebrated figure, having overcome knee and elbow injuries and qualified in a lower weight class than her natural weight to reach her third Olympics. Last year, she helped lead public protests against what she and other athletes said was sexual abuse and harassment by the former president of India’s wrestling federation.

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       Her gold medal match was scheduled against an American opponent on Wednesday night. But at the morning weigh-in for the 50-kilogram (110-pound) category, Phogat remained 100 grams, or 3 ？ ounces, over the limit after trying to cut weight by running on a treadmill and sitting in a sauna. She had gained roughly three pounds, which is common, during replenishment after wrestling in three bouts on Tuesday.

       “A billion hearts break,” became a common, deflated refrain in India. At the behest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India’s Olympic committee filed an appeal. But international wrestling’s rules allow no leeway. Now Phogat would get no medal at all. After the weigh-in, she was given intravenous fluids to treat dehydration.

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