Tokyo, July 24: Saikhom Mirabai Chanu who hails from Manipur in northeast India opened the country’s medal account by clinching Silver in the 49kg women’s weightlifting category in the first day of Tokyo Olympics on Saturday.
Could not have asked for a happier start to @Tokyo2020! India is elated by @mirabai_chanu’s stupendous performance. Congratulations to her for winning the Silver medal in weightlifting. Her success motivates every Indian. #Cheer4India #Tokyo2020 pic.twitter.com/B6uJtDlaJo
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 24, 2021
What a day! What a win for India. Mirabai Chanu wins silver in Weightlifting Women’s 49kg category, India open tally in Tokyo Olympics. You have made the country proud today.
Bravo 👏🏼 👏🏼👏🏼 pic.twitter.com/g4mCI9CmqE
— N.Biren Singh (@NBirenSingh) July 24, 2021
Chanu becomes the second Indian to win a medal in weightlifting, after Karnam Malleswari’s bronze teo decades ago during the Sydney Olympics, 2000.
Chanu lifted 84 kg and 87 kg successfully in snatch but failed to lift 89 kg and was placed second while, China’s Zhihu Hou created the world record and clinched the Gold by lifting 94 kg in snatch.
Chanu had created Olympics record by lifting 115kg in Jerk.
Chanu, the 26-year-old Padma Shree and Khel Ratan awarded weight lifter from the outskirts of Manipur capital Imphal had accidentally entered into the world of weightlifting accidentally.
She Initially wanted to enroll in archery when she was 12 years in old, but, since the archery enclosure was shut she had a peak into the weightlifting hall at Khuman Lampak Stadium.
“I liked how strong they were, the weightlifters. I too wanted to be as strong, ” Vhanu told this correspondent in an earlier interview at Guwahati during the South Asian Games, 2016.
She had trained by travelling about 20km from her village, Nongpok Kakching to Imphal while her daily ordeal of carrying firewoods as part of home chores helped build her a strong upper body, a coach of Chanu had told this correspondent then.
Mirabai, too, had credited her success to years spent trekking up and down hills carrying firewood on her head way before she had started training for weightlifting.
She won her first significant medal just one year after training — a gold at the Youth Championships in Chhattisgarh in 2009 and thus began her journey of success as she climbed higher and began lifting heavier weights. Within five years, she was lifting a combined weight of 170 kg, enough to win her a silver at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in 2014. She started working with her current coach Vijay Sharma that year, and by 2016 was lifting a total of 192 kg, breaking Kunjarani Devi’s 12-year-old record of 190 kg, quoted a report by The Hindu.
Mirabai Chanu won India’s first gold medal in the Commonwealth Games.
The Silver this Olympics, is also seen as a redemption to her heartbreak in Rio Olympics 2016 in which she couldn’t lift 82kg despite qualifying for it.
“I was really low after the Olympics. It took me a lot of time to get over the disappointment. I even thought of giving up the sport and stop training. The comments in social media, the criticism against my coach really hurt me,” she had said in an interview.
She chased it with other golds — at the 2018 Commonwealth Games at Gold Coast and the 2019 EGAT cup in Thailand. She bettered her own record at this year’s World Weightlifting Championship, finishing fourth with a combined lift of 201 kg, and ended 2019 with a bang: gold at the Qatar International Cup.
