Olympian Mirabai Chanu Rewards Truck Drivers Who Gave Her Free Lifts During Training Days

Saikhom Mirabai Chanu, India’s first medallist from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, felicitated truck drivers in her hometown who helped her travel during her training days. The truck drivers helped her during her early days when she had to travel 30 kilometers every day from her hometown of Nongpok Kakching to Imphal for training.

Her village, Nongpok Kakching, was about 30 km away from the Sports Academy in Imphal and public transport was hard to find. Coming from an underprivileged family, private transport was not an option anyway. So, she used to hitch rides with truck drivers who used to carry sand to Imphal. These truck drivers regularly gave Mirabai Chanu a free lift to her training academy.

On Thursday, she expressed her heartfelt gratitude to those that helped her. She treated 150 truck drivers and their helpers to a nice lunch and gifted them all a shirt and a Manipuri scarf.

According to the reports, Mirabai broke down in gratitude when she met the drivers. She said that her dream of becoming a weightlifter would not have been achieved had it not been for the truckers who helped her travel to train.

The 26-year-old lifted a total of 202kg (87kg+115kg) in the women's 49kg category to better Karnam Malleswari's bronze in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. It was also India's first Olympic medal in weightlifting since the Sydney Games.