SWATI SINGH

Commonwealth Games medalist Swati Singh hails from Varanasi. Daughter of a farmer, Kameshwar Prasad Singh, she started her sports career as a gymnast when she was in class VIII and won many medals at the state level. But, she was always fascinated by iron games so she started power lifting in the year 2004. Later, she created a national record as well as got a silver medal in sub junior Power lifting world Championship held at South Africa.

After this, her coach GP Sharma saw her lifting and guided her that power lifting was a non Olympic Games and made her realize the value of Olympics. So she transformed from power lifting athlete to weightlifting and was selected for Sports Authority of India, Lucknow in 2005. Swati completed her graduation, MA and BPEd from Lucknow University. She got medals in All-India University Tournaments from 2006 to 08 (silver medal in 2006, silver medal in 2007 and gold medal in 2008). After her gold win she was recruited by Indian Railways. After joining in NER she achieved national medals from 2009 to 2013 and gold medals in India Railways. During Commonwealth Games, New Delhi in 2010 she missed a medal due to a knee injury.

In 2014 Commonwealth Games, held in Scotland, she bagged a bronze with games record in snatch. She qualified at the Senior World Championship held in Kazakhstan which was an Olympic qualifier.

She also works as a coach and has recruited some lifters in NER who went on to win medals at national and international levels. She is helping talented girls from poor families.

Now she is back to her training regime and aims to win an Olympic medal for India.