Aichi-Nagoya [Japan], September 23 (ANI): For years, Mirabai Chanu has carried the hopes of Indian weightlifting on her shoulders, lifting extra than simply the weights positioned earlier than her. On Wednesday, the Olympic medallist lastly added the Asian Games silver to her glittering assortment, finishing her medal haul throughout the most important worldwide occasions.
The 32-year-old Indian weightlifter secured silver within the girls’s 49kg class on the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games 2026, lifting a mixed 198kg to assert her maiden medal on the continental showpiece.
Chanu efficiently accomplished all three of her snatch makes an attempt, lifting 83kg, 85kg and 87kg. She then opened the clear and jerk with 107kg earlier than making 111kg in her second try to complete with a complete of 198kg.
North Korea’s Ri Song Gum received gold with a complete of 215kg, whereas Wijayana claimed bronze.
The medal was a landmark second in Chanu’s profession. After profitable Olympic silver at Tokyo 2020, three Commonwealth Games gold medals and one silver, and medals on the World, Commonwealth and Asian Championships, the Asian Games podium had remained elusive.
At the Hangzhou Asian Games in 2023, an harm pressured her to withdraw from her closing clear and jerk try, leaving her fourth. Three years later, she returned to the continental stage and secured the medal that had been lacking from her assortment.
With the silver, Chanu turned the second Indian weightlifter after Karnam Malleshwari to win medals on the Olympics, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, World Championships, Asian Championships and Commonwealth Championships.
Born on August 8, 1994, in Nongpok Kakching, Manipur, Chanu’s journey to the highest started in humble environment. The youngest of six siblings, she grew up in a modest household, together with her father, Saikhom Kriti Meitei, working within the Public Works Department and her mom, Saikhom Tombi, working a small store to complement the household earnings, in response to a media launch from SAI.
Long earlier than she turned one in every of India’s most recognisable sporting icons, Chanu developed her energy by way of on a regular basis duties in her village, together with amassing firewood and carrying water uphill throughout the hilly terrain.
She initially aspired to change into an archer, however her pure energy was recognised on the Khuman Lampak Sports Academy, setting her on the trail to weightlifting. She started formal coaching in 2008 and frequently travelled from her village to Imphal, usually counting on passing truck drivers for rides as a result of her household couldn’t afford day by day transportation.
Those early struggles turned a permanent a part of her story. Chanu later invited a number of the truck drivers who had helped her attain coaching periods to share within the celebrations of her Olympic success.
Her rise was supported by the Manipur sports activities system earlier than she moved to national-level coaching in Bengaluru after which the National Institute of Sports in Patiala, the place she has skilled since 2012. Coach Vijay Sharma has been her principal mentor by way of a lot of her senior profession, serving as a information and father determine.
Chanu’s worldwide breakthrough got here on the 2017 World Weightlifting Championships, the place she received gold. She adopted it with Commonwealth Games gold medals at Gold Coast in 2018, Birmingham in 2022 and Glasgow in 2026, alongside silver medals on the World Championships in 2022 and 2025 and gold on the Asian Championships in 2021.
Her Olympic silver at Tokyo 2020 established her amongst India’s main sporting figures. She completed fourth at Paris 2024, however continued to compete on the highest stage, returning to the rostrum on the 2025 World Championships earlier than finishing her Asian Games medal assortment.
Away from competitors, Chanu serves as Additional Superintendent of Police (Sports) in Manipur Police and is pursuing a sports activities psychology programme by way of Amity University Online.
Alongside Sharma, she has additionally helped set up the Weightlifting Warriors Academy in Modinagar, Uttar Pradesh, with a deal with encouraging younger ladies to take up the game. Around 40 ladies had been reported to be coaching on the academy in 2026.
Chanu has usually cited fellow Manipuri weightlifter Kunjarani Devi as her sporting idol. Today, her personal journey-from a village in Manipur to Olympic and Asian Games podiums-has made her an inspiration for a brand new era of Indian weightlifters.
Her silver in Aichi-Nagoya provides one other chapter to that journey, bringing India a long-awaited weightlifting medal on the Asian Games and giving Chanu the one main accolade that had eluded her. (ANI)