Mumbai: Weightlifter Saikhom Mirabai Chanu is the only Indian athlete competing at the Paris Olympic Games. She is one of four competitors seeking to build on their success from the Tokyo Olympics and win back-to-back medals.
As the sole Indian athlete competing in Paris, Mirabai will have to live up to the expectations of over 130 crore people. However, the 29-year-old from Nongpok Kakching in the Imphal East district of Manipur finds lifting weights easy.
Mirabai is also not new to being a lone ranger for the country in elite competitions; in 2020, she was the only Indian weightlifter in Tokyo.
As the second Indian weightlifter to earn an Olympic medal, Mirabai created history in the rescheduled Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in 2021 by taking home the silver medal in the 49 kg weight class. She is also the second Indian lifter to earn an Olympic medal, after Karnam Malleswari in 2000, and the most successful lifter from India at the Olympics.
Now, Mirabai, who will compete in her third Olympics following the Rio Olympics in 2016 and the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, will aim to become the second Indian female athlete, after shuttler PV Sindhu (2016, 2020), to win back-to-back medals in the quadrennial Games.
Though Mirabai became the first Indian to win the World Championship in this weight class in 2017, the route to the women’s 49kg podium is challenging.
With a total lift of 200 kg, China’s Hou Zhihui, the Tokyo gold medallist, leads by a wide margin, while the rest of the field has recently lifted in the 180–190 kg range. Hou, however, had a difficult qualifying path to Paris; at the 2024 IWF World Cup, the final Olympic qualifying tournament held in Phuket, Thailand, she managed to secure her quota spot at the eleventh hour, surpassing her teammate Jiang Huihua.
Hou, who lifted 97 kg to set a world record in the snatch category in Phuket, is comfortably ahead of three of her main competitors: Mirabai, Surodchana Khambao of Thailand, and Jourdan Delacruz of the United States.
Clean and jerk is Mirabai’s forte; at 119 kg, she held the world record in this category. Therefore, She must perform an excellent snatch to build on her clean-and-jerk result and qualify for the medal round. She lifted a personal best of 203 kg at the 2020 Senior National Weightlifting Championships (88 kg in the Snatch and 115 kg in the Clean & Jerk). She raised 119 kilograms in the clean and jerk at the 2020 Asian Weightlifting Championship in Tashkent, bringing her total weightlifting weight to 205 kg.
Despite the challenges she faces in Paris due to injuries, Mirabai’s resilience shines through. Since winning the silver medal in Tokyo, she has battled injuries, with her most recent setback being a hip injury at the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou. Even after sustaining an injury in October 2023, Mirabai’s determination remained unshaken, and she missed five months of sporting activity. Her journey is a testament to the strength and determination of an athlete.
Notwithstanding the setbacks, Mirabai has successfully healed from her injuries. Having captured gold in the Commonwealth Games in 2018 and 2022, she has proven her resilience time and again. This season, she has only competed once in the IWF World Cup in Phuket, where she placed 12th with a total lift of 184 kg. Her successful healing from injuries gives hope for her performance in the Paris Olympics.
Mirabai’s journey is marked by numerous achievements that make India proud. She won gold in the 2017 World Championship and silver in 2022 in Bogota. Her outstanding performance earned her the Padma Shri and the Khel Ratna Award in 2018. These achievements are a testament to her dedication and hard work.
Under the guidance of her American physiotherapist, Dr Aron Horschig, whose services have been funded by TOPS, Mirabai is currently training for the Paris Olympics at the esteemed La Ferte-Milon in France.
Dr. Horschig is working hard to keep Mirabai fit for the Olympics. Chief national coach Vijay Sharma is in France with the Manipuri lifter, preparing her for her second consecutive Olympic Games medal quest.
— IANS
