Resilient Chanu, a diamond in rough
New Delhi, July 24: Comeback strains the toughest of wills. But genuflects when the person in question is Mirabai Chanu.
In the Tokyo Olympics on Saturday, everything associated with staging a comeback — from challenges unforseen to situations unexpected — bowed to the resilience and perseverance of the Indian weightlifter.
Tougher than the toughest, she called winning the silver medal in the 49kg category in Tokyo “a dream come true”, but to realise it, Chanu had to overcome one obstacle after another, day after day.
Things weren’t always so hunky-dory for Chanu, who has now become the toast of an entire nation. But before that, Chanu had to beat poverty, scale obstacles to reach here.
Born in a poor family in Nongpok Kakching village about 20 kilometres from Imphal, Chanu is the youngest among six siblings. Her childhood was spent cutting and collecting wood from the nearby hills, bringing it up by herself, and fetching water from nearby ponds in milk powder cans.
She won her first national medal in 2009. She quickly rose the ranks and grabbed the silver in the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
Touted as a favourite to win a medal in the 2016 Rio Games, a then 21-year-old Chanu was left heartbroken after she failed all her three clean and jerk attempts, which meant she could not log in a total.
The stubborn Manipuri redeemed herself a year later, winning the 2017 World Championship to become the first Indian weightlifter in over two decades to claim a gold at the marquee event.
A few months later she was crowned the 2018 Commonwealth Games champion.
Her professional journey has been somewhat of a rollercoaster. After the back-to-back golds, the Khel Ratna awardee was struck by a mysterious back problem, which marred her progress in 2018 and also led her to miss the Asian Games that year.
Determined to get the coveted Olympic medal, Chanu kept improving herself and not even the postponement of the Tokyo Games and the global Coronavirus-enforced lockdown could bring her down. That’s Mirabai Chanu for you.