Saikhom Mirabai Chanu Biography: Olympic Silver Medallist Indian Weightlifter’s Journey, Family, Background, Achievements, and More

Paris Olympics 2024: Another edition of the Olympics is about to begin in a few hours, with a spectacular Opening Ceremony on Friday, July 26, 2024. The 2024 Olympics will be held in Paris, and for the first time in Olympic history, athletes will travel on about 100 boats and pass through some of the city’s iconic landmarks, including Notre Dame, Pont des Arts, and Pont Neuf, during the Opening Ceremony. The parade will begin on Austerlitz Bridge and end at the Trocadéro. 

Paris Olympics 2024 Date 

The Paris Olympics will begin on July 26 and end on August 11. The Olympics will feature 329 events spread across 42 sports, with 10,500 athletes from 184 countries competing. India will be represented in the parade by its flagbearers, Sharath Kamal and PV Sindhu. 47 women and 65 men from India have qualified for the Paris Olympics. Several well-known names have made the list, including Neeraj Chopra, Harmanpreet Singh, Deepika Kumari, and Rohan Bopanna, among others. The only woman who will be representing India in weightlifting will be Mirabai Chanu, the first Indian weightlifter to win a Silver medal at the Olympics. 

Mirabai Chanu has made India proud several times in the Commonwealth Games, Olympics, and other international and national competitions. Let us know more about her biography, life, background, and more.

Early Life & Background

Saikhom Mirabai Chanu was born on August 8, 1994, into the Meitei family, a warrior clan from the Nongpok Kakching area of Manipur, approximately 30 km away from Imphal city. In addition to identifying as a Sanamahism follower, Chanu also practices Hinduism. Her family recognized her strength when she was able to lift logs of wood that her brother found difficult to handle and carry them home with ease. Although she was initially interested in archery, she discovered weightlifting while visiting a local sports complex in Imphal. Mirabai trained at the Sports Academy in Manipur.

Weightlifting Career

Mirabai Chanu made her first major breakthrough at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, where she won silver in the 48 kg weight category. Chanu qualified for the 2016 Rio Olympics in the women’s 48-kilogram category but did not finish the event because she did not lift successfully in any of her three clean-and-jerk attempts.

Tokyo Olympics 2020

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics were postponed due to COVID-19 and eventually took place from July 23 to August 8, 2021. Mirabai Chanu won the silver medal in the 49 kg division with a total lift of 202 kg, making history as the first Indian weightlifter to win an Olympic silver medal, the second Indian weightlifter to win an Olympic medal after Karnam Malleswari, and the second Indian woman to win an Olympic silver after P. V. Sindhu. Additionally, her victory gave India its first Olympic medal in Tokyo.

Commonwealth Games 2022

Chanu won the gold medal in the 49 kg category at the Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham, England. She lifted 201 kg in snatch, clean and jerk.

Other Competitions

• In 2017, she won the gold medal in the Women's 48 kg category by lifting a competition record 194 kg in total at the 2017 World Weightlifting Championships in Anaheim, California, USA. Chanu lifted 196 kg, 86 kg in Snatch, and 110 kg in Clean and Jerk to win India’s first gold medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. On her way to the medal, she broke the game's weight category record, setting a personal best.

• At the 2019 Asian Weightlifting Championships, she was unable to secure a bronze medal in the 49 kg category despite her total lift of 199 kg. Mirabai finished fourth at the 2019 World Weightlifting Championships, lifting a total of 201 kg (87 kg Snatch and 114 kg Clean & Jerk), setting a new national record in the 49 kg category. 

• She broke her personal record again in 2020, lifting 203 kg (88 kg in Snatch and 115 kg in Clean & Jerk) in the 49 kg category to win gold at the 2020 Senior National Weightlifting Championships.

• She lifted 86 kg in the snatch and 119 kg in the clean and jerk, winning the bronze medal at the 2020 Asian Weightlifting Championships in Tashkent in April 2021, setting a new world record with a total lift of 205 kg. Chanu became the only Indian female weightlifter to qualify for the 2020 Summer Olympics by finishing second on the Absolute Rankings in the 49 kg category in the same year.