Carrying Firewood As A Child To Winning Olympic Silver, Mirabai Chanu Lifts India To Glory
Mirabai Chanu won the silver medal and became the first Indian to win an Olympic medal at the 2020 Tokyo Games in the Women's 49kg category.
Saikhom Mirabai Chanu scripted history by winning India's first medal in the Tokyo Olympics, claiming silver in the women's 49kg weightlifting.
Mirabai had a total lift of 202kg - 87kg in snatch and 115kg in clean and jerk as she finished second behind China's Hou Zihui 210kg (94 & 116) who set an Olympic record in snatch.
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Indonesia's Aisah Windy Cantika took the bronze medal with an aggregate of 194kg.
Talent spotted at early age
Like most sportspersons, Mirabai's talent was spotted at an early age. In fact it was her parents who noticed that at the age of 12, she possessed a great deal of strength. She could easily carry bundles of firewood to her house which her elder brother could barely pick up. From there, there was no looking back.
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Burst into international scene in 2014 CWG
She burst onto the international scene in style when she took home a silver at the 2014 Commonwealth Games. She became an overnight sensation and a household name in India. Suddenly everyone was discussing her as a potential candidate for the future. But it was only a sign of things to come.
Indiatimes
She didn't stop there
In 2017, she won gold at the World Championships. This was proof that her Commonwealth Games silver was no fluke. However, she was far from done. The following year a Commonwealth Games Gold followed and Mirabai was truly on top of the world.
In the 2019 World Championships she set a national record of 201 kilograms but finished fourth. The same year she clinched bronze at the Asian Championships.
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Broke own national record
2020 saw her break her own national record and lift 203 kilos to take home gold at the National Championships.
Mirabai's success did not go unnoticed in India as she was awarded both the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna and the Padma Shri in 2018.
Only an Olympic medal had eluded her so far and with that in her kitty now, she is now one of our greatest lifter of all times.
