India might not have a significant fan-following for weightlifting because a majority of the fans follow cricket. However, there are athletes from other sports who are giving absolutely everything to make the country proud. Our athletes have been performing really well compared to previous years and are winning medals for the nation on the global stage.
Case in point, if there is one athlete who has braved all the challenges and touched the pinnacle of success when it comes to weightlifting over the last couple of years, it is none other than Mirabai Chanu. She is a world-class lifter from India and has represented the nation at the highest level and won accolades for India.
Mirabai’s talent was spotted at a young age. It was her parents who had first noticed her talent at the age of 12. Her parents learnt that Mirabai possesses great strength and that she could easily carry loads of firewood to her house which her elder brother found it hard to pick up.
There was no looking back since then. She announced her arrival in the international scene in style when she settled for silver at the 2014 Commonwealth Games. She went on to become an overnight sensation. However, it was just the beginning.
In 2017, she bagged a gold at the World Championships, proving that her Commonwealth Games silver was no fluke at all. She grew from strength to strength in the following year and won a Commonwealth Games Gold. It was then Mirabai hit the peak of her career.
In the 2019 World Championships, she set a national record of 201 kilograms but ended up in fourth place. In the same year, she won bronze at the Asian Championships. She brought the best out of herself in 2020 as she broke her own national record and lift 203 kilos to win gold at the National Championships. Mirabai was awarded both the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna and the Padma Shri in the year 2018.
Mirabai Chanu scripts history again!
Mirabai Chanu etched her name in the record books after she made a mark for herself at the Tokyo Olympics 2020. The weightlifter won the silver medal in the women’s 49 kg competition, which is our nation’s first medal in the ongoing Olympics.
Mirabai Chanu lifted 87 kg in the snatch and clinched the silver by lifting 115 kg in clean and jerk. Chanu bagged silver lifting a total of 202 kg – 87 kg in snatch and 115 kg in clean and jerk.
She managed to lift 84 kg and 87 kg in her first two attempts in the snatch category. Unfortunately, she failed in her final in which she targeted 89 kg. Coming to the clean and jerk section, she lifted 110 kg and 115 kg in the first two attempts.
She shed tears upon learning that she secured a medal for the country and also hugged the coach in delight. Apart from Chanu’s success, there was something else that caught the attention of the country and which is Chanu’s earrings.
Her earrings are made in loops to represent the logo of Olympics rings (5). In fact, her earrings were a precious gift from her mother who sold her own jewellery for them 5 years ago.
Her mother did it in the hope that the earrings would bring her good luck in the competition as reported by Hindustan Times. Mirabai Chanu did the country proud and was the only Indian to win a medal on the first day of the Olympics.