Ace weightlifter Saikhom Mirabai Chanu opened India’s medals tally on Saturday as she bagged a silver in the Women’s 49kg category here at TOKYO 2021 OLYMPICS International Forum, which brings India to 12th place.
Chanu lifted about 202 kg (87kg in snatch and 115kg in clean and jerk) during her four successful attempts across the competition.
China’s Zhihui Hou won gold by lifting 210kg and created a new Olympic Record while Indonesia’s Windy Cantika Aisah grabbed bronze with a total of 194kg.
All three girls did a tremendous job to make their countries proud.
“Sab sapna jaisa hai.Bahut bada moment hain mere liye (This feels like a dream),” says Channu
Channu is a girl who went from carrying firewoods for daily living to becoming a weight lifter who made the whole country proud with an Olympic silver.
We could have never asked for a better start to the Tokyo 2021 Olympics. She did not just lift weight but also lifted India.
Besides being the center of attraction of the whole country, her story solely is so inspiring and courageous.
She was not spoonfed, she discovered her passion, she found her path to victory, and it was not a bed of roses for her.
She had to travel 40 km a day for coaching. Imagine how much time she would have lost traveling but adding to your surprise she also rode her cycle back and forth some days, if she gets lucky she would get a ride on a truck.
Growing up in Imphal Channu and her brothers had to pick up wood for the fire. She discovered her strength when she could pick humongous firewoods when her older brothers could not. She used to do this when she was just 12 years old.
“I have been home only 5 days in the last 5years,” she says. The intensity and amount of hard work behind her success are evident from this phrase.
“Channu’s discipline is the biggest strength,” says her coach Vijay Sharma.
She even missed her sister’s wedding because she had events on that day and could not miss it.
Finally, all the hard work and missed events paid off. She is not the national charm.
Channu also says she is happy that she has made so many friends on social media though she does not use social media.
Chanu proves her humble nature by immediately thanking everyone who prayed for her so she was able to achieve this.
“ her achievement is going to inspire all the talented girls of Manipur and we are expecting she will do better in future”. Said her brother
HER JOURNEY:
She visited the sports authority of India, Imphal for archery but did not get into archery. She was inspired by Kunjarani Devi by seeing her clips. Kunjarani was a 7-time gold medalist at the world championship and also won gold in the 2006 Melbourne championship.
After 2 years of hard work, she entered the national camp. Chanu won a ton of titles at the state level and won her first national medal in 2011.
This is when she got exposure with her role model Kunjarani Devi.
In 2014, she won her first international silver at the commonwealth games.
Now, she has won a silver in Tokyo 2021 Olympics.
She lifted our country, not just weight.