It meant that Mirabai had to sit out of the Asian Games and the world championships in 2018, and then spend nearly a year away from the floor, recuperating from the injury. But an injury to her lower back would draw curtains on what was shaping up for a spectacular season. She followed that up with a gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, an event that saw Mirabai smash the Games record in ‘snatch’, ‘clean and jerk’ and ‘total’. Her effort in the 48kg category was the first since Sydney 2000 bronze medallist Karnam Malleswari’s title runs in 19.
Mirabai Chanu sprung to international prominence at the age of 20, when she bagged the silver medal in the 48kg category at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Scotland.Īt the 2017 world weightlifting championships in Anaheim, USA, Mirabai Chanu became the first Indian weightlifter in over two decades to claim a gold medal. She was able to lift and carry home a bundle of firewood that was way too heavy for her brother, four years her senior.Īlways drawn to sports, Mirabai Chanu initially wanted to take up archery until stumbling into a weightlifting hall at a local sports complex in Imphal.Ī natural at the sport, Mirabai quickly had an idol to try and emulate, finding inspiration from the exploits of India's most decorated female weightlifter, Kunjarani Devi. The silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics was the result of steely determination and numerous sacrifices.įrom lifting firewood as a kid to being elevated onto international podiums, Mirabai Chanu's story is one of a remarkable journey.īorn in a family with limited means and the youngest among six siblings in Nongpok Kakching, a village in Imphal, Chanu’s lifting prowess was first noted when she was around 12. The disappointment left Mirabai Chanu depressed and she even contemplated early retirement. It helped banish the demons of her debut Olympics at Rio 2016 - where she had entered after shattering a 12-year national record - but was unable to complete any of her clean-and-jerk lifts.
She also became only the second Indian woman after PV Sindhu to win an Olympic silver medal. Mirabai’s silver at Tokyo 2020 was only the second Olympic medal by an Indian weightlifter after Karnam Malleswari. An Olympic silver medallist, a world champion and a three-time Commonwealth Games gold-medallist, Mirabai Chanu can lay claim to being one of India’s finest weightlifters.
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