 "Coffee with BS: Saikhom Mirabai Chanu, Weightlifter, Olympian")
Standing 4 feet, 11 inches tall, Saikhom Mirabai Chanu is a colossus. The undisputed poster girl of weightlifting, and an embodiment of grit and humility, she has lifted the hopes of a nation at the Olympic stage.
Her strength goes far beyond the kilograms lifted and the medals won — to the manner in which she has shattered gender stereotypes, overcome injuries, and inspired a generation of upcoming athletes.
On a sweltering afternoon, I meet Chanu at the Weightlifting Warriors academy in Sadabad Jakhaiva, a village in Modinagar, Uttar Pradesh, just an hour’s drive from New Delhi.
The academy’s polished floors gleam under the lights. The barbells are neatly arranged in clockwork symmetry. This is the Manipur weightlifter’s abode till September, where she will be training hard for the Commonwealth Games qualification round.
“My immediate target is to participate in the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and the Asian Games in Nagoya, Japan, both of which are scheduled next year,” she says. “Based on my performance, I will take a call on the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.” Her thoughtful gaze drifts past me to rest on the portrait of her silver medal-winning feat at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics embossed on the walls of the academy. “I want to be the catalyst of change,” she proclaims.
Her diminutive frame belies her strength.After Tokyo, she was the toast of the nation — becoming only the second Indian weightlifter to win a medal at the Olympics — after Karnam Malleswari, who clinched bronze at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Awards, adulation and a bevy of endorsement deals followed.
The medal capped Chanu’s remarkable journey which began in Nongpok Kakching, a nondescript but beautiful village located40 km from Imphal, the capital of Manipur. Born in a Meitei Hindu family, Saikhom is her lineage title. Her father, Saikhom Kriti Meitei, was a construction worker with the Public Works Department; her mother, Tombi, a former state-level footballer. Resources were scarce at the Meitei household.
When Chanu was 12, she accompanied her 16-year-old brother, Saikhom Sanatomba Meitei, to collect wood. On that particular day, she effortlessly lifted a heavy bundle of wood, placed it on her head, and trudged nearly 2 km through the tricky mountainous terrain back home.
Impressed by her daughter’s physical strength, Tombi was convinced of her potential
in weightlifting. Kunjarani Devi, the OG (Original Gangster) weightlifter from Manipur, the trailblazer who won a gold medal at the 2002 Commonwealth Games, would also leave a lasting impression on Chanu. “Seeing my interest in Kunjarani Devi, my mother asked me to become a weightlifter. I joined the sports academy in Imphal,” recalls the three-time Commonwealth Games gold-medallist.
In no time, Chanu would earn the moniker: “Loha uthane wali ladki (the girl who lifts iron).”
Through the course of our conversation, I have regular refills of milky coffee at the academy’s premises, but Chanu’s beverage lies untouched on the table.
Chanu is hopeful that her epochal win will encourage more young women from remote corners of the country to take up a physically demanding sport like weightlifting. Four years since the Tokyo Olympics, the change is visible.
“When I was coming through the ranks, there would be around 100 female weightlifters at the national championships,” she says. Today, there are more than double that number. “If you come to this academy in the evening, it is chock-a-block with young athletes. A lot of them are from my home state: Manipur,” she smiles. Chanu backed her efforts in Tokyo with gold in the 49 kg category at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. Her breakthrough performance, however, was at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, where she won silver.
The Olympic champion knows the inherently fickle nature of stardom. Less than two years ago, the weight of expectations of an entire nation rested on Chanu’s shoulders. At the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, she was considered a guaranteed podium contender.
Tragically, she ended that marquee event in a wheelchair. A hip injury meant she would fail in both her attempts in the clean and jerk section. Similarly, in the 2018 Asiad in Jakarta, the Manipuri weightlifter would be crippled with a back injury that left her bed-ridden for
close to six months. “I could not bend forward to even pick a bottle from the floor,”
she recalls. Little wonder why the 30-year-old has attached so much importance to the Asian Games. “It is my dream to win a medal at the Asian Games.
It is the only box that remains to be ticked,” she says, her soft, piercing gaze fixed on me.
The spate of injuries meant Chanu would forever be on the proverbial comeback trail.
Braving injuries, she came to the 2024 Paris Olympics with a flourish, but finished agonisingly in fourth place, just 1 kg behind Surodchana Khambao, her rival from Thailand, who clinched bronze.
“I managed a total of 199 kg in the snatch and clean and jerk category, while my nearest rival finished third with 200 kg,” she recalls. “In major events like the Olympics, it is about luck as much as it is a game of fine margins,” the 2018 Padma Shri winner says.
Chanu thanks her coach, Vijay Sharma, whose words of wisdom and Dronacharya-like influence not only helped her finetune her game, but also tidied away bouts of recurring injuries. “Sir (Sharma), the doctor and the dietician keep monitoring you,” she says. “As an athlete, my job is to follow their instructions. It is important to have that ecosystem.”
Sharma entered Chanu’s life months before the 2014 Glasgow Games. Through minor tweaks in her alignment, posture and training regimen, he transformed her into a medal-guzzling champion.
These days, Chanu’s diet, weight and calorie count are closely monitored by Dathan Pisharody, a former junior warrant officer at the Indian Air Force. “I am on a strict diet. Dathan sir keeps a close watch on what I eat and drink,” she says with a chuckle. The ignored coffee cup sits on the table as proof.
Typically, Chanu’s breakfast includes egg whites, porridge, oats and sprouts. For lunch, she has fish and lean meat, while dinner consists of rotis and meat.
Moving out of Manipur at a tender age of 17 steeled Chanu for the challenges that lay ahead. In her own words, it was also an “eye-opener”.
“Back then, people were ignorant about Manipur and the Northeast. I would often be asked: Manipur kahan hain (where is Manipur)?” She believes people from the Northeast have to work harder than those from other parts of the country to receive the recognition they deserve. “Thankfully, things are getting better now.”
Over the past two years, Manipur has been on the boil. The state has witnessed ethnic clashes between the Meitei community and the Kuki-Zo tribe. She is of the view that a visit from the Prime Minister would have helped in alleviating the simmering tensions in the state.
In the midst of her curated training regimen, the Olympic champion finds time to unwind by listening to Bollywood songs sung by the late Lata Mangeshkar. “She is my favourite singer. I love listening to all her songs, but Lag ja gale is the best. I listen to it on loop,” she says.
Chanu nurtures a dream. Once she retires from the sport, or in the weightlifter’s parlance hangs up her barbells, she plans to open a state-of-the-art academy for young weightlifters in her home state.
“I don’t want the future generation to struggle the way I did,” she says. “I want to give them the best of facilities. It is my way of giving back to Manipur.” Just then, her attention drifts to the stream of children arriving at the academy for training.
The milky coffee remains untouched on the table.
