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Tag: Mirabai Chanu

  • Mirabai Chanu to Carry India’s Weight Alone in Paris

    Mirabai Chanu to Carry India’s Weight Alone in Paris

    Being the only one from India in her sport in Paris, Mirabai will be carrying the weight of the expectations of 130-odd crore people…writes B. Shrikant

    One of the four individual Indian athletes hoping for a repeat of their success from the Tokyo Olympics and win back-to-back medals, weightlifter Saikhom Mirabai Chanu is the lone weightlifter representing the country in the Paris Olympic Games.

    Being the only one from India in her sport in Paris, Mirabai will be carrying the weight of the expectations of 130-odd crore people. But lifting weights comes easy for the 29-year-old from Nongpok Kakching in Imphal East district of Manipur.

    Being a lone ranger for the country in top competitions is also not new for Mirabai as she was also the only Indian weightlifter in Tokyo.

    Mirabai made history in the re-scheduled Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in 2021 when she won the silver medal in the 49 kg weight class, becoming the second Indian weightlifter to win an Olympic medal. She is also the most successful Indian lifter at the Olympics and the second one after Karnam Malleswari in 2000 to win an Olympic medal.

    Now Miramai, who will be competing in the third Olympics after the 2016 Rio Olympics and 2020 Tokyo, will be hoping to become the second Indian woman sportsperson to win back-to-back medals in the quadrennial Games after shuttler PV Sindhu (2016, 2020).

    However, the path to the podium in the women’s 49kg class is extremely tough, and Mirabai, who became the World Champion in his weight class in 2017, the first Indian to win.

    China’s Hou Zhihui, the gold medallist at Tokyo, is the run-away leader with a total lift of 200kg while the rest of the field has recently lifted in the range of 180 to 190kg. However, Hou did not have a smooth qualifying route for Paris, grabbing the quota place in the last minute, overtaking her teammate Jiang Huihua with her final lift at the 2024 IWF World Cup held in Phuket, Thailand, which was the last qualifying event for the Olympics.

    Hou, who set a world record in the snatch category at Phuket by lifting 97 kg, is ranked well clear of three of her top contenders – Mirabai, Surodchana Khambao from Thailand, and Jourdan Delacruz from the United States.

    Mirabai’s strong point is clean and jerk, in which she held the World Record at 119 kg. Thus she will have to do a very good snatch to then capitalise on her performance in clean and jerk to get into medal contention. She has a personal best of 203 kg ((88 kg in Snatch and 115 kg in Clean & Jerk) which she lifted in the 2020 Senior National Weightlifting Championships. She improved her performance in clean and jerk to lift 119 kg in the 2020 Asian Weightlifting Championship in Tashkent, where she achieved a total of 205kg.

    It will also be tough for Mirabai in Paris on another count — injuries. Since winning the silver medal in Tokyo, Mirabai has struggled with injuries — the hip injury she suffered at the Hangzhou Asian Games in 2023 being the latest setback for her. That injury suffered in October 2023 had kept Mirabai out for five months.

    Though Mirabai, who won gold medals in back-to-back Commonwealth Games in 2018 and 2022, has recovered from that injury. She has participated in only one event this season, the IWF World Cup in Phuket, where she finished 12th with a combined lift of 184 kilos.

    While that was enough to secure her a ticket to Paris, the competition in the French capital when the weightlifting competitions start on August 7 will be a different matter altogether for the Indian lifter, who won gold in the 2017 World Championship and silver in 2022 in Bogota and has been conferred with the Khel Ratna Award and the Padma Shri in 2018.

    Mirabai is currently preparing for the Paris Olympics at the prestigious La Ferte-Milon in France under her American physio Dr Aron Horschig, whose services in preparation for the upcoming Olympic Games, have been covered under TOPS funding.

    While Dr. Horschig is trying to keep Mirabai fighting fit for the Olympics, it is chief national coach Vijay Sharma who is in France with the Manipuri lifter and will be planning her campaign to win a medal in the second successive Olympic Games.

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  • Mirabai Chanu’s 55kg entry rejected in Commonwealth

    Mirabai Chanu’s 55kg entry rejected in Commonwealth

    Jhilli Dalabehera was expected to take up Chanu’s spot in the 49kg division while Poppy Hazarika was to be India’s entry for the 64kg event…reports Asian Lite News

    Indian weightlifter Mirabai Chanu’s entry in the women’s 55kg category at the 2022 Commonwealth Games has been rejected, which means she will move back to her pet 49kg division to compete at the quadrennial meet in Birmingham.

    The Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWLF) had earlier planned to enter Chanu in the higher 55kg division to maximise India’s medal chances at the CWG, to be held from July 28 to August 8.

    The Manipuri ace, who had already qualified for the CWG 49kg event courtesy of being the top-ranked Indian weightlifter in the division, accepted the proposal. She then made the 55kg cut by winning gold at the Singapore Weightlifting International in February, which was the final CWG qualifying event.

    However, a change in entry rules by the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) closed the Tokyo Olympics silver medallists’ prospects of competing in the 55kg at CWG 2022.

    According to the new rule, a country’s top-ranked weightlifter in a category qualifies for the CWG but if they withdraw, the next best lifter doesn’t get the berth automatically. As per the old rule, the spot would have gone to the next best or qualified lifter.

    Mirabai Chanu’s fellow Manipuri lifter Bindyarani Devi is the top-ranked Indian lifter in the 55kg division. Bindyarani was supposed to move up to the 59kg division if Mirabai could have participated in the 55kg as per the IWLF’s initial plans, an olympics.com report said on Sunday.  

    Jhilli Dalabehera was expected to take up Chanu’s spot in the 49kg division while Poppy Hazarika was to be India’s entry for the 64kg event.

    After the latest development, former world champion Mirabai Chanu will move back to her 49kg for the Commonwealth Games while Bindyarani Dev and Poppy Hazarika will compete in the 55kg and 59kg, respectively. India will have no entry for the women’s 64kg now.

    The 27-year old Chanu is the reigning Commonwealth Games champion in the women’s 49kg and all her major international honours, including the Olympic silver and world championships gold medal, have come in in the 48/49kg category. She also holds the world record for clean and jerk (119kg) in the division.

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  • Mirabai Chanu Wins India’s First Medal at Tokyo Olympics

    Mirabai Chanu Wins India’s First Medal at Tokyo Olympics

    With the silver at the Olympics, Mirabai Chanu has now won medals in the Commonwealth Games, Asian Championships and World Championships, reports Asian Lite News

    Indian weightlifter Mirabai Chanu bagged a historic silver medal in the women’s 49kg weightlifting at the Tokyo International Forum to lift the gloom after four top pistol and rifle shooters flattered to deceive on Saturday.

    Mirabai, ranked third in the world, had a total lift of 202kg with 87kg in snatch and 115kg in clean and jerk. This is India’s second medal in the sport after Karnam Malleswari’s bronze in the 69kg category at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

    Hou Zhihui of China won the gold medal, setting a new Olympic record of 210kg. She set the record too in snatch with 94kg and 116kg in clean and jerk. Indonesia’s Windy Cantika Aisah took home the silver medal with a total lift of 194 kg.

    With the silver at the Olympics, Mirabai has now won medals in the Commonwealth Games, Asian Championships and World Championships.

    Mirabai started off with a lift of 84kg in her first attempt at snatch. She went better in her second attempt, lifting 87kg. In the final attempt, she couldn’t lift 89kg. But her second attempt, also her personal best in snatch, was good enough to be placed second, behind Zhihui.

    Zhihui, the overwhelming favourite in the event, lifted 88kg in the first attempt followed by an Olympic record of 92kg. She bettered her own mark with 94kg in the final attempt of snatch.

    In clean and jerk, Mirabai had a confident lift of 110kg in the first attempt and 115kg in the second attempt. Though she couldn’t lift 117kg in the final attempt, she was able to confirm a silver medal in the Olympics.

    Mirabai Chanu
    Screen grab via Team India Twitter

    The 26-year-old Mirabai was deemed as a medal prospect for India at the Olympics which opened on Friday after a one-year delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the lead up to the Olympics, Mirabai had set a new world record in clean and jerk (119kg) in a bronze-medal show of 205kg, at the Asian Championships in Tashkent in April this year.

    In the process, Mirabai has now completed a redemption path which started from the disappointment at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Her debut at the Olympics in the 48kg category was a horror show, unable to lift in all three attempts of clean and jerk. The effect was so hard that Mirabai had to take the help of a sports psychologist to get over the happenings of Rio.

    Five years from Rio, toughened up mentally and richer in experience, Mirabai completed the turnaround at Tokyo by becoming the second Indian woman and fifth individual overall to win a silver medal at the Olympics.

    Mirabai Chanu
    Mirabai Chanu wins India’s first medal at Tokyo Olympics. (Image Credits: Team India Twitter)

    She worked hard and rectified every point of error to be the best version of herself. Injuries, especially a mysterious pain in the lower back, came in her way but that didn’t stop Mirabai from reaching the podium in Tokyo. Her training in St Louis, USA led to finding ways of improving fitness and snatch technique, her bugbear for a long time.

    With the Olympic rings in her earrings, Mirabai lifted her way to glory at Tokyo. On realising that she had won a medal, the diminutive Manipuri broke down and hugged her coach in jubilation.

    The silver medal around her neck and the smile behind the mask indicated the completion of a turnaround, erasing the pain of Rio with the joy at Tokyo.