‘Time for fish, rice and family’: Mirabai Chanu after winning Olympics silver

The job is done, the dream fulfilled – a podium finish at the Olympics finally for the diminutive Saikhom Mirabai Chanu. She was lost for words post her silver medal win in 49kg weightlifting. But the happiness was apparent as she sat down to talk to an eager Indian media back home courtesy an interaction organised by Sports Authority of India. The silver medal hanging around her neck, it was past 9.00pm in Tokyo.

The 26-year-old from Manipur created history by becoming the first Indian weightlifter to win a silver medal at the Olympic Games. India’s last medal in the sport came 21 years ago when Karnam Malleswari won the bronze in Sydney.

It was also India’s first medal at the Tokyo Olympics. "Everyone is happy, the dream got fulfilled," she said during the interaction.

Mirabai is hungry - not just for Olympic medal which she finally won after years of hard work, focus and sacrifices, but also for her favourite food. Her coach Vijay Sharma revealed she had not eaten much for the past two days, prior to her competition this morning. She cannot wait to savour the fish and rice prepared by her mother – Mirabai has been away from home and family for almost five years.

“I have probably been home only for 5 days in last five years," she said.

Speaking about her journey from Rio 2016, where she failed to lift in all three attempts to now, Mirabai said, "Winning an Olympic medal was always my dream; that has been fulfilled today. I had worked hard in Rio too but couldn’t win. So, we changed everything – the training method, especially. You can see the result now. I can’t explain to you. I trained really hard for this."

The Rio disaster had a huge impact on Mirabai. It wasn’t easy to pick herself up and get back to training. "I was very sad after Rio failure. But Vijay sir counselled me a lot. The federation, too, motivated me by saying I can do it. I then refocused and told myself that in World Championships, I will do well. We worked together as a group and that’s why we got a silver here today."

Coach Sharma has been with her since 2014 – he had spotted the talented youngster while coaching a group of children. "What stood apart in her was discipline and determination. I felt she had something special. She has achieved what she has, because of these qualities," he said.

He admitted the failed outing in Rio 2016 put him under tremendous training helped them turn things around. " That setback taught us we have to work hard with more determination and focus. We changed our training path and strategy post Rio. The results came in 2017-18, and we got a medal in 2019, too. There was consistent growth. Mira has done nothing but eat, sleep and train. Two and a half years were spent on qualification, and one and a half years were gone due to COVID-19 pandemic."

Mirabai said that she hoped that her medal would change the way girls look at sports, including weightlifting. "Weightlifting has few women lifters. I hope more girls come in now, work hard, participate more, and they will get chances to do something special. Not many girls come into games or sports. I just want to say that you can do something for India not just by studying but through sports, too. Girls have a lot of power.”