The state of Manipur has produced excellent sportsmen and women. They have shone in hockey, football, weightlifting, and boxing, the most famous of them all is Mary Kom. There is also a weightlifting champion Saikhom Mirabai Chanu who has a string of impressive victories under her belt. She is a former world champion, Olympic Games silver medalist, and three-time Commonwealth Games gold medalist.
She is known as India’s Pocket Hercules. Standing only 4 feet 11 inches tall and weighing only 49 kg, she can lift barbells loaded with more than 100 kilos. She won a silver medal in the women’s weightlifting competitions during the last Olympic Games in 2021 and is now aiming to bag her second Olympic medal in Paris in 2024.
Mirabai was the youngest of six children born to a family of meagre resources in Nongpok Kakching village near Imphal. Her strength became clear when she was a child but could lift bundles of firewood that her elder brother, six years older than her, could not lift. When she was a little older she chose the sport of weightlifting.
In the footsteps of Malleswari
By winning the silver medal at the last Olympics, Mirabai followed in the footsteps of Karnam Malleswari of Andhra Pradesh who had won the bronze medal in the Sydney Olympics in 2000. However, Mirabai went one step up the ladder by winning the silver medal. The ever-smiling Manipuri woman will be competing in the coming Paris Olympics and has put in a prodigious amount of hard work as preparation before the Games.
Mirabai is aware that this time a Herculean task lies ahead of her in Paris. At present Mirabai is ranked world number 12 in the 49 kg category in which she will compete. Can she overtake the eleven other competitors who are ranked higher than her at present? The job will not be easy but Mirabai is training hard and optimistic about achieving her goal.
Layoff due to injury
She had to undergo a six-month layoff due to a hip injury but is now back in form. She has set her sights on a snatch lift of more than 90 kilos. Recently in the World Cup weightlifting championships in Phuket, she snatched 81 kg and added 103 kg in the clean and jerk style to come up with a total of 184. However, Mirabai can do better in the second lift because for two years she held the world record at 119 kg.
Her main rivals
But at the Paris Olympics, her target is to achieve more than 200 kilos. Only such a total may give her a chance to win a medal and she knows it. The best lifters in her weight category are two Chinese girls namely Jiang Huihua and Hou Zhihui. Since 2018 these two girls have dominated the competitions in this category. Huihua has a total of 215 against her name and Zhihui has totalled 213.
Then there is also the present world record holder, Ri Song-Gum of North Korea, whose total is a massive 221 kg. This record was set in April 2024 so the North Korean girl is the best in the fray right now. Looking at all these strong rivals, it is obvious that Mirabai has her task cut out for her.
Mirabai is training under her longtime coach Vijay Kumar Sharma and recently told the media that she has completely recovered from her injury. However, she is being careful not to aggravate her injury and is doing repetitions at 80 percent of her full capacity. She is saving her best efforts for the Olympic competition.
She is eagerly looking forward to testing her strength and skill against the Chinese and Korean rivals once again. We don’t know what fate awaits her. But if her luck favours her, she may be able to celebrate her 30th birthday on August 8, with a medal hanging around her neck.
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