The lone Indian weightlifter to qualify for Tokyo Olympics gave fans a reason to rejoice as Saikhom Mirabai Chanu managed to bury the ghosts of the 2016 Rio Olympics and won a silver medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
The 26-year-old Manipuri became only the second Indian weightlifter after Karnam Malleswari to win an Olympic medal. The veteran had won a bronze at the 2000 Sydney Games.
SILVER FOR MIRABAI!!
We're off to a great start as our star weightlifter @mirabai_chanu clinches the first Silver for India at the #TokyoOlympics in the 49kg category.@PMOIndia @ianuragthakur @NisithPramanik @ddsportschannel @WeAreTeamIndia @PIB_India pic.twitter.com/s0r96b7LaK
— SAIMedia (@Media_SAI) July 24, 2021
Who is Saikhom Mirabai Chanu?
Mirabai, at the age of 13, from Nongpok Kakching village - around 20km from Manipur's capital Imphal - had decided she wanted to be a sportsperson. So she went ahead and decided to learn archery. With a plan in mind, in early 2008, she travelled with a cousin to the Sports Authority of India (SAI) Centre, at Khuman Lampak in Imphal. However, she did not find any archer training that day.
Things took a turn when she saw clippings of the legendary Manipuri weightlifter Kunjarani Devi. This inspired her and after a few days, she went to the weightlifting training centre. She met the former international weightlifter and coach Anita Chanu, and this got her into the sport.
She had also started juggling her training and her school schedule to make her dream come true.
Road to weightlifting fame:
In the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Mirabai lifted 170kg to win a silver. She then won gold in the 2016 Senior Nationals.
She had a disappointing show at the Rio Olympics, but Mirabai silenced her detractors by winning the gold in the 2017 World Championships and even at the Commonwealth Games a year later.
She also overcame an unspecified back problem, which she had acquired in 2018. She changed her weight category to 49kg from her original 48 kg and now she is a proud silver medalist at the Tokyo Olympics.