Mirabai Chanu on Weightlifting, Battling Injuries and The 2028 LA Olympics

As soon as the screen flickers to life for the virtual interaction, Mirabai Chanu breaks into a toothy grin. It is the same dazzling smile that has lit up podiums across the world, from Anaheim to Tokyo, from Glasgow to Aichi-Nagoya. It is the smile the steel in her eyes dissolves into once she has successfully hauled a barbell overhead, elbows locked and straight, lifting loads more than twice her body weight.

This time, the smile cracks a mask of exhaustion. It has been a gruelling few months for the poster girl of Indian weightlifting.

After clinching a third successive gold medal at the 2026 Commonwealth Games (CWG) in Glasgow in July, Chanu earned the only missing piece in her trophy cabinet, an Asian Games medal. With a total lift of 198kg (87kg snatch+111kg clean and jerk), Chanu won a silver in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan in September to capture India’s first weightlifting medal at the Asian Games in 28 years.

“It has come after a long wait,” says Chanu, who earned a rare 15-day break from training after returning from Japan.

“Though weightlifting wasn’t that tough at CWG, I had to evaluate my preparation. We only had one month of training time and as soon as I won the medal at the Commonwealth Games, I resumed training the very next day.”

After all, the Asian Games were Chanu’s final frontier. She missed the 2018 edition due to injury, and three years ago, at the delayed Hangzhou Games, she finished fourth after a hip and thigh injury hampered her final clean and jerk attempt.

The 32-year-old admits she was under considerable pressure this time around. “This Asian Games was very important,” she says. “Nobody knows what will happen after four years. It was a big opportunity to prove myself. I felt a bit anxious. I kept talking to my coach, focusing on the process, what we need to do, what changes to make, who is competing. During the competition, I was very calm and relaxed, I did not overthink like before.”

In Aichi-Nagoya, the 4’11” dynamo was a picture of confidence. A Zen master in practice.

Wearing a red bodysuit and a ribbon representing the Indian tri-colour in her hair, she breezed through her three snatch attempts to get into a bronze-medal position. Chanu then lifted 107 kg on her first attempt in clean and jerk to upgrade to silver and sealed it with a 111kg lift, erasing the painful memories of Hangzhou, where she had to be helped off the platform due to injury.

It was another milestone in a journey that had begun almost 20 years ago.

Born in Nongpok Kakching, a village in Manipur, Chanu, the youngest of six siblings, has always been a survivor. Her father worked in the public works department and mother ran a tea stall. By the time she was 12, she was accompanying her brothers as they went to the hills to collect firewood, carrying loads much heavier than them.

While her parents and her brothers played football, Chanu was fascinated by Kunjarani Devi’s tales of glory and the sport they colloquially called ‘loha uthana’ (lifting iron). At age 13, in 2007, she would travel one hour away from home to a training centre in Imphal. With no transport available that early, she hitched rides in a truck carrying stones and sand to the state capital to reach the Khuman Lampak Stadium at five in the morning.

“I am a very lucky girl because my family loves sports,” says Chanu. “They understand the life of an athlete. It was my mother who wanted me to take up some sport.”

With Chanu showing early promise, the family poured all support and resources into her training. Her brothers’ football took a back seat; Chanu’s nutritional needs became a priority. In 2011, she was selected for the national camp at the Sports Authority of India centre in Bengaluru and then moved to Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sport in Patiala in 2012, where she met her mentor and coach Vijay Sharma.

“I have sacrificed a lot—staying away from home, keeping my focus on training, and abstaining from foods I crave,” says Chanu. “I did all of that because I wanted to accomplish something in weightlifting and make my family proud. My family and my coach provided immense support, without them I couldn't have reached this level.”

Weightlifting is a fairly static sport, but there is poetry in the stillness. Greatness is defined by the economy of movement, by how little the muscles quiver, how every sinew works in sync as athletes hoist mind-bogglingly heavy weights from the floor to overhead. At times their faces are flush with effort but the body rarely betrays the pain as they hold the pose for the judges.

The lower weight categories, like the 48-49kg classes Chanu competes in, come with an added caveat of weight management. Through the year, Chanu trains with a base weight of about 1-1.5kg over her weight class, enabling her to carry heavy loads. Muscles are strengthened and stretched for optimum performance. About two to three weeks before competition, the excess weight is pared back.

“We calculate calories and choose specific foods,” says Chanu, as she sips on her black coffee. “I don’t drink milk or eat paneer and bread at all. While other athletes say drinking milk is essential, milk increases body weight, so I don't drink it. I drink black tea or coffee; I can cut out everything else but not those!”

But even the best-laid plans can go askew. Chanu, who had picked up a silver medal at the 2014 CWG—her first at a multi-sport event—had emerged as one of India’s medal prospects at the 2016 Rio Olympics. At the biggest stage, her small, sculpted frame was unable to lift the burden of expectations. She failed to register a single legal attempt in clean and jerk.

“After the 2016 Rio Olympics—which was my first Olympics—I had to hear a lot of criticism about why I failed and that India missed a sure-shot medal,” she says, recalling one of the toughest phases of her career. “People even blamed my coach, saying the weight selection was wrong. The comments were very hurtful. My family rallied around me. I promised myself that instead of talking back, I would prove myself through actions.”

She hadn’t come this far just to come this far.

The very next year, Chanu captured a World Championship gold in Anaheim, California in the women’s 48kg, with a total lift of 194kg, a competition record at the time. At the 2020 Tokyo Games, she began India’s medal haul with a silver in the women’s 49kg. She has suffered multiple injuries—shoulder, thigh, hip and a career-threatening back injury in 2018, which kept her away from the sport for over five months. But every time, Chanu has bounced back stronger.

“In Indian weightlifting, there isn’t anyone ready to take my place yet, so I had to perform every time and prove myself,” she says. “My journey doesn't end with just one competition. Every medal, every disappointment teaches me something; gives me more strength and motivation.”

Once the 15-day break is over, Chanu will be back in training at the Weightlifting Warriors Academy, founded by her and coach Sharma, in Modinagar, Uttar Pradesh. Her next goal in sight? The 2028 LA Olympics. Mirabai always had fire in her belly. Now she also has ice in her veins.

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