Mirabai Chanu on winning Silver at the Tokyo Olympics spoke about encouraging female participation in sports especially weightlifting. Chanu and Coach Vijay Sharma also added about the pressure due to the failure at Rio Olympics.
Mirabai Chanu, in an interview after a podium finish at the Olympics, "This will encourage women to enter weightlifting. I want to tell everyone that they should encourage girls to enter sports."
How Mirabai Chanu Wants to Celebrate Now
- Will eat pizza, haven't eaten in a long time she said.
- She has been eating salad for last four years to prepare for the Olympics
- She missed her sister's wedding in training but now hopes to spend time with family
- Didn't go home on many family occasions
- Missing my mom the most
Chanu's coach Vijay Sharma further added that "There was a lot of pressure on us after Rio's failure as we were expecting a medal there." Sharma said they changed the approach of training and since 2018 it gave results.
Mirabai Chanu had successfully qualified for the Rio Olympics but had no successful lifts in any of her three attempts in the clean & jerk section.
Mirabai Chanu kickstarted the Olympics for the Indian contingent and won Silver at the Toky Olympics with a successful lift of 115kg in clean and jerk on the first day itself.
Prior to her win at the Tokyo Olympics, Mirabai Chanu had bagged a bronze with a ‘double century’ at the Asian Championship. She also made a new World record in clean and jerk with this. She was also congratulated by weightlifter Satish Sivalingam among others.
The 26-year-old had three chances to lift the 200 kg weight and she had missed the first two attempts. Then in her third and final attempt, Chanu lifted 86kg and after she signed off with an incredible 119kg lift in clean and jerk. This bettered the world record by 1kg. She lifted her best-combined total of 205kg.
Currently, Chanu is the first and only woman Indian weightlifter to qualify for the 2021 Summer Games. This came after she won the 2nd position in the 49kg category. She is also the first Indian woman to win silver in Olympics.
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