Mirabai Chanu: From Quitting Weightlifting to Gold in Tokyo

When athletes choose their discipline in India, there’s very little science involved. Mirabai Chanu, a silver medallist in women’s 49kg weightlifting at Tokyo Olympics 2021, was not a different case. “This journey has been good for me. It wasn’t easy in the beginning. I worked for the Tokyo Olympics for five years. After failing at the Rio Olympics, my only aim was to win a medal at the Tokyo Games,” Mirabai told to media.  

Being the youngest of the six siblings living in Nongpok Kakching, a village 45 km south of Manipur’s capital Imphal, Mirabai, portrayed great strength as a kid. While collecting firewood with her siblings, she used to lift a lot more than what her elder brother could. She didn’t know about weightlifting at that time, but her mother saw the talent. 

Mirabai Chanu, in her childhood, wanted to be an archer. Still, when she read about Kunjarani Devi, another iconic weightlifter from Manipur, the thought of being a weightlifter first crossed her mind. Her mother immediately agreed, aware of her child’s qualities, and Mirabai’s journey as a weightlifter began. 

It all started very well for the Manipuri weightlifter who gained fame when she won a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games in 2014. Success at such an event at the international level boosted the confidence of an Indian athlete gets her into the limelight and went into Rio Olympics; she was considered a medal contender.

But too bad for her, Mirabai couldn’t live up to the expectations. She couldn’t even complete the event. The failure almost broke the weightlifter, who was just 21 at the time. Injuries didn’t help her cause, and she was depressed and about to quit the sport post-Rio. 

“I kept questioning why I failed despite working so hard and was doubting myself. I was really disappointed and completely heartbroken after Rio. I was so depressed that I had to seek the help of SAI psychologists,” Mirabai had told reporters during an interaction before the Games.  

Mirabai’s problems are just mental, and she knew she had a lot of work to be done physically. A year after Rio, she got back to the training. “I changed my training method, worked more on my technique. In clean and jerk, we find out what part we needed to work on and strengthen that movement and body part,” she mentioned of the physical changes. “Mentally, I did not take too much pressure on myself before competitions,” she added. 

  It worked for her. In 2017, Mirabai came back to the highest level at the World Championships by lifting 109 kgs in clean and jerk, the part which she had worked on; Mirabai stunned the world by winning gold and became the first Indian weightlifting champion in over 20 years. But again, in the 2019 World Championship, there was heartbreak for Mirabai Chanu, who finished fourth, but this time her confidence was intact.

Having previously overcome failures, she knew her way out of disappointments and failures. In 2020, Mirabai improved her World Championship mark of 201 kgs to lift 203 kgs in the national championships before pushing that to 205kgs at the Asian Championships, where she won the bronze medal. 

But at Tokyo Olympics, Mirabai was much more relaxed and calmer, a far cry from Rio where nerves overcame her. Her medal was guaranteed after a good performance in the snatch where she lifted 87kgs. She maintained her level in clean and jerk to win silver. In five years, Mirabai had gone from heartbreak at Rio Olympics to almost quitting the sport to the Olympic podium.

She always had the talent that even her mother had spotted at a young age. Still, the Manipuri weightlifter added the other necessary elements through sheer hard work to channelize her talent and ensure it was rewarded at the highest level.