BOSTON—Meet Olympian weightlifter Saikhom Mirabai Chanu, who won silver medal in the 49kg category at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. From lifting firewood as a kid to being Olympic silver and Commonwealth Games gold medalist, her story is an extraordinary journey.
In an exclusive Chai With Manju celebrity interview, Ms. Chanu, whose life-story will be soon filmed in a biopic in India, says she would Bollywood actress Alia Bhatt to play her role.
To watch the full interview about her journey from a small village in the northeastern Meghalaya state to Tokyo Olympics silver medal victory, please click here, or on the image below.
Born in a family with limited means and the youngest among six siblings in Nongpok Kakching, a village in Imphal, Ms. Chanu’s lifting prowess was first noted when she was around 12. She was able to lift and carry home a bundle of firewood that was way too heavy for her brother, four years her senior, according to her official bio.
In addition to an Olympic silver medalist, a world champion and a three-time Commonwealth Games gold-medalist, Mr. Chanu also became only the second Indian woman after PV Sindhu to win an Olympic silver medal.
Before Tokyo, competing at her first Olympics in Rio, Ms. Chanu had crashed out of the competition after failing to register even one lift in the clean and jerk section of the event. It crushed her confidence, and the then 21-year-old cried all the way from the arena to her room in the Olympic Village, slipping into a protracted depressive episode in the months to come. “I still don’t know what happened to me that day,” she told media later.
