From Rio Heartbreak To Winning Silver At Tokyo 2020, How Mirabai Chanu Scripted History

Mirabai Chanu, India’s star weightlifter, gave India a dream start at the Tokyo Olympics, clinching a silver medal in women’s 49kg event. With his medal, Chanu scripted history as she became the first-ever Indian to win an Olympic medal on the opening day of the event.

Chanu lifted a total of 202kg (87kg snatch & 115kg clean and jerk) to clinch India’s first-ever silver in weightlifting at the Olympics. Before her, Karnam Malleswari’s bronze at the 2000 Sydney Olympics was the country’s best ever performance in weightlifting.

Silver medal! 🥈

After a tough battle, Chanu Saikhom Mirabai finishes in second place in the #Weightlifting women’s -49kg and earns the first medal for India at #Tokyo2020@iwfnet @WeAreTeamIndia pic.twitter.com/zLF5Et6NLC

— Olympics (@Olympics) July 24, 2021

Chanu’s medal gave billions of Indians a moment to cherish forever but things weren’t exactly the same five year ago and she wanted to quit the sport forever.

The Manipuri weightlifter went into 2016 Rio Olympicswith high hopes but came empty-handed. More than the result, she was disappointed with the way she performed. Out of six attempts, she could only manage one clean lift which shattered her completely.

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“When I got the call from Mirabai and she told me about the result, I fainted. The whole family cried. Mirabai told me that she was nervous and wanted to quit the sport,” Chanu’s mother Saikhom Tombi Devi told Indian Express. 

But the champions never backed down and Chanu wasn’t ready to give up so easily. Learning from her mistakes, she bounced back in some fashion, striking gold at the Commonwealth Championships and the World Championships in 2017. The following year she bagged the top prize at the Commonwealth Games.

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As they say, what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger and same was the case with Chanu. She was a completely different player after the Rio disappointment. She channelised her anger and scaled new heights in the next couple of years.

Just when it looked like there would be no stopping her, she was ruled out for almost 10 months due to an injury. She went into the Olympics high on confidence after creating a new clean and jerk world record, lifting 119kg at the Asian Championships held in April this year.

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Given her form, she was one of the brightest medal prospects for India but then again one couldn’t forget how things turned south for her in Brazil. She buried the ghosts of the Rio Olympics with her historic performance in Tokyo and made us all proud.