Saikhom Mirabai Chanu secured India’s first medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics when she won the silver medal in Women’s 49 kg Weightlifting. Chanu has been a regular presence at the international level since winning the World Championship in 2014 and the Commonwealth Games.
Here are 5 things that you didn’t know about the Indian Champion:
1. Identified her interest in sports at an early age
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During her childhood days, Chanu showed that she had some serious strength in her as she would carry heavy bundles of firewood on her back and walk home without showing any problems or difficulty. As a kid, she was massively interested in archery but soon realized that her strength lies in weightlifting and since then she took on that path to become one of India’s top weightlifters.
2. Chanu’s role model?
Mirabai Chanu dream to become a weightlifter began when she read about Kunjarani Devi (who later trained Mirabai Chanu)
With Seven world championship silver medals, Manipuri’s legendary weightlifter Kunjarani Devi showed the way to many sportspersons in Manipur. #Tokyo2020 pic.twitter.com/LIoLe6Mt6B
— India 🇮🇳 at #Tokyo2020 (@IndiansportFeed) July 24, 2021
Mirabai Chanu was born and brought up in the state of Manipur, a state which has offered a lot of sportspersons in the past and one of the names in that list is Kunjarani Devi. Devi, who has won seven silver medals in World Championships and two bronze in the Asian Games in weightlifting (48kg category) is Chanu’s role model. Chanu idolized her role model Devi and aspired to reach the top of the sport just like Devi did and is finally there after winning silver at the Olympics for India.
3. Khel Ratna Award
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Being a recipient of the Khel Ratna Award is the biggest honor for any sportsperson in India. Since making her debut in Weightlifting, it only took Mirabai Chanu a year to win it. In 2018, the weightlifter was awarded by the Government of India and within a span of twelve months, she was also awarded India’s fourth-highest civilian honor – The Padma Shri award.
4. A WR holder
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Mirabai Chau proved to the world how strong she is when she broke the World Record for a Clean and Jerk lift in the 48 kg weight category in the Championship at Uzbekistan. Her first lift was 86 kg which was followed by her 119kg lift (WR) which also helped India secure a third-place finish in the competition for lifting a total of 205kg. In the process of doing this, she also broke her PR of 203kgs which she had set in the National Championship back in 2020.
5. The shine of India
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Chanu won Gold in the World Championship in 2017 which was held in Anaheim with a total lifting weight of 194kgs. Since then she has been a familiar face on the podium around the world, winning gold and silver in the Commonwealth Games held in 2014 & 2018, and is currently ranked #2 in the world in her weight category (49kg) with an Olympic silver medal now in her bag. She also broke the long-time deadlock of winning a medal in weightlifting at the Olympics which was set by Karnam Malleshwari who won bronze two decades ago at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
[Image Credit: Saikhom Mirabai Chanu]
Shashank Iyer