Nongpok Kakching village is 20 km from Imphal. Most of the people out there are into farming. Though the place has one of the highest literacy rates, one would have to travel a few kilometers for schools and colleges. Mirabai Chanu’s life was no different too.
Being the youngest of six siblings, she would watch her brothers play different sports including football. Saikhom Sanatomba Meitei, who is four years elder than her, used to represent the state in junior-level football.
Since the family was into sports, Young Mirabai always wanted to be one too. However, she was just too young to decide. Her first decision was that she wanted to take up Archery. Not because she loved the game but because it was one of the cleanest sport.
She used to watch her brothers return home after a long day of football and that inspired her to opt for archery.
Of course, she is from the town that has been voted as the cleanest town in the North East.
Mirabai even took the first step by going to the Sports Authority of India in order to watch people practicing archery. Unfortunately, she couldn’t find any. Instead, she watched a few athletes lifting weights. She was just 14 back then, and the weightlifting began to fascinate her.
Since she couldn’t get it out of her mind, she looked up the sport and read about the story of the Indian superstar Kunjarani Devi. Undoubtedly, Kunjarani Devi’s story was an inspiring one and did make a lot of young kids take up the sport. Soon, Mirabai became one of them.
All this while, the kid was living in a dream world. She knew what she wanted to do but coming from a family that was financially backward, couldn’t help her case. Her father used to be a low-level officer in Pubic Works Department while her mother ran a small shop.
When she told this idea to her mother, she worried about the money while her father was against the idea itself. Mirabai somehow convinced the family to invest in her dreams.
She had to manage school and the training which was certainly difficult considering she had to take a couple of buses from her village to school and had to travel close to 22kms. She had gym and training by 5 am and she had to travel at least an hour for the same. Then school followed.
It was certainly a lot for a teenager, but Mirabhai always had a thing for weightlifting. While growing up, the siblings used to go under the hills to gather firewood. Mirabai was just 12 at that time, and she used to carry more firewoods than her brothers. While the firewood fuelled her house, in a way, it fuelled her dreams too.
In 2009, Mirabai first made heads turn with her first national medal. Since then, there was no looking back. A job as chief ticket inspector at Indian Railways kept the family, as well as her training, go without any troubles.
The 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games was the first time the world took a big look at her as she grabbed a silver. A gold at Senior Nationals in 2016 made India back her for the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Nerves took the front row as she couldn’t lift the clean and jerk in three attempts. What followed was hatred on social media and self-doubt. She almost gave in to the former and wanted to give up the game.
With advice from her coach, she calmed down and decided to put those pain to gain a medal at the World Championships. The scar left by that Olympics was just too much that every time she was out there, she wouldn’t settle below the best.
What followed was Gold in World Weightlifting Championship in 2017 and then Gold in Commonwealth Games in 2018. She also changed her category from 48kg to 49kg. She got herself Olympic earrings just to remind herself of the goal.
When one thought that everything was going fine, things took a turn when she went to the USA to train and recover under Dr Aaron Horschig, a well-known physiotherapist.
The physiotherapist did a full body evaluation and the results were scary. There were problems with left shoulder and left hip movements, a bit of issue with right shoulders stability as well. There were imbalances because she was putting more pressure on one side compared to the other while lifting weight.
In a way, the postponement of the Olympics came in handy for her as she was able to rectify her mistakes. The changes were shown right away as she ended up creating a world record in the Asian Championships.
Come Olympics. She had to put behind her Rio loss to focus on today. This time, it wasn’t nervousness but periods. She got her periods right before her campaign and after a gynaecologist right before the game, she was all set.
This time, she was smiling right from the start. She made sure to take her time in between and didn’t rush anything. She crossed the 84kg and 87kg in her first two attempts with ease but failed to lift 89kg in her third attempt. If she had done that, it would’ve been her personal best.
If one thing she wanted to do this time was to rewrite those awful memories she had in Rio Olympics, Clean and Jerk category. Right after she failed in all three attempts in 2016, all her hard work went to this category so much so that she created the world record in the Asian Championships.
Here, she lifted 110 kgs in the first attempt. There was a sigh of relief, a usual smile that followed. Since her rival Jourdan Delacruz failed in all her three attempts here, she knew she was going to win a medal. In the second attempt, she went for 115kg but failed to lift 117kg in her third. Though she failed there, the medal was already achieved.
As the nation celebrated her victory, her job is done for now. She can finally go back to her house, a place she didn’t visit for a very long time because of training.
