Mirabai Chanu: From lifting firewood to CWG gold

CWG gold medallist Mirabai Chanu had showed her weightlifting prowess even as a 12 year old when she would comfortably lift more firewoods than her elder brother.

At 23, Mirabai has the world at her feet as she earned India's first gold medal at Gold Coast after smashing the Games records in 48kg category snatch, clean and jerk.

Born to a poor family in Nongpok Kakching village about 20 kilometres from Imphal, the youngest among six siblings, Mirabai would go to collect firewoods from a nearby hill with her brother Saikhom Sanatomba Meitei, who is four years elder to her.

"One day I could not lift the bundle of firewoods but Mira easily lifted it and took it our home, about two kilometres away. She was about 12-year-old then," Sanatomba told PTI, amid the noise of firecrackers in celebration of Mirabai's success at her home.

It was the earliest memory of Mirabai that Sanatomba could recall on a day the world champion weightlifter lived up to the reputation and brought laurels to the country at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

"I used to play football then and I could see the passion in her to do something. She gradually went on to join weightlifting," Sanatomba, a state level footballer at junior level, said.

"She always has the passion to achieve big. She never put her under pressure and is always ice-cool, something that was evident in her flawless lift."
"It will be a double celebration tomorrow, we will make Mira's favourite food -- Kangsoi (a Manipuri stew delicacy). Sweets were being distributed since morning today and you could still hear the firecrackers late into the evening."