Mirabai Chanu vows to give it her all at Paris 2024 Olympics

Mirabai’s personal best in snatch is 88 kg, an effort that helped her win the 2022 Commonwealth Games gold medal in Birmingham with a combined lift of 201 kg.

Paris 2024 will be Mirabai Chanu’s third Olympics. After a disappointing debut at Rio 2016, the Manipuri, pushing 30, made impressive comebacks with sterling shows at global competitions.

Mirabai became the first Indian lifter in 22 years to become a world champion in 2017. The gold at Commonwealth Games in 2018 in Gold Coast followed and after narrowly missing a medal at the 2019 World Championships, Mirabai created history at the 2020 Asian Championships in the People’s Republic of China.

In clean and jerk, Mirabai lifted 119 kgs in Ningboi. It was a world record!

Injuries, however, have been a constant issue for Mirabai. Post the historic silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics, she has been afflicted by numerous injuries.

The hip injury at the Hangzhou Asian Games 2023 sidelined Mirabai for five months. Managing injuries with her American physio Dr. Aaron Horschig and coach Vijay Sharma, has been her biggest challenge.

With Paris 2024 on the anvil, Mirabai has been very choosy about her competitions this year. In 2024, she took part in only one competition – the World Cup – and with a combined lift of 184 kilos, finished 12th. However, it was enough to secure a spot in Paris.

“After the Asian Games injury, the World Cup was my first competition. I was certainly apprehensive about picking up another injury,” Mirabai Chanu told SAI Media in Patiala recently. “I didn’t want to spoil my Paris chances. So, yes, that injury fear was there. For me, injury management and staying stress free will be important.”

“I have to do the things that helped me recover. Injuries and pain are companions for us. You never know when they will strike. We have to conquer them and Paris Olympics will tell me how well I have managed these aspects of the sport,” she added.

Mirabai and her team will be off to Le Ferte-Milon in France in the first week of July and will have almost a month to ‘acclimatise’ ahead of the Summer Games. She says there is a direct relation between fitness and technique and every muscle plays a part in lifting weights.

“Weightlifting is a sum of many parts. Lot of gym exercises are required as every body part plays its role. Muscle strength matters a lot to lift weights over 200 kgs. And more importantly, I can’t skip training. If I leave training for a day, it will take a week for me to recover and bring my muscles to perfect state,” the Manipuri ace revealed.

Injuries have made Mirabai more determined. Five months away from weightlifting has made her more combative and winning another Olympic medal remains her ultimate goal.

“An Asian Games medal seems to be jinxed, I definitely want to win one and I was just one lift away from getting one in Hangzhou when the injury came. Even after so much preparation, I got injured. That hurts for sure but at the same time, injuries make me determined to come back stronger for India,” Mirabai said.

“Like Tokyo, I will again count on the prayers of all Indians and of course, it’s going to be God’s wish on that day in Paris. It will be a dream for me and my family to win a second Olympic medal but I also know that even the best of preparation can fail. So, let’s hope for the best,” Mirabai concluded.