How Mirabai Chanu exorcised her 2023 demons to end Asian Games medal jinx

• Mirabai Chanu wins her first Asian Games medal, ending India’s 28-year weightlifting drought

• The silver caps a comeback after fourth-place finishes at Hangzhou and Paris

• Mirabai and coach Vijay Sharma are nurturing young female lifters at their Weightlifting Warriors Academy

It may take some time for the enormity of Saikhom Mirabai Chanu’s silver medal — her first at the Asian Games — to sink in for India’s sports fans. There may be some doubters wondering whether gold would have been a fitting way to end her jinx at the continental event, given that the ever-smiling lifter already has an Olympic silver from Tokyo on her trophy shelf.

Just ponder over the bigger picture for a while, and it becomes clear what it took for the 32-year-old Additional Superintendent of Police (Sports) in Manipur to beat the odds on Wednesday in Aichi-Nagoya. It took India 28 years to end its medal drought in weightlifting at the Asian Games, while the level of competition can be gauged from the fact that Mirabai finished second with a combined lift of 198kg, behind only North Korea’s Ri Song-gum, the reigning world champion and two-time defending Asian Games champion.

Song-gum’s total of 215kg (94kg in the snatch and 121kg in the clean and jerk) was a world record as she proved a cut above the rest. But the way Mirabai fought her mental demons and battled through physical setbacks after a spate of injuries puts her on a par with the best India has produced so far — be it Karnam Malleswari or her own idol, Kunjarani Devi.

The Asiad medal now makes Mirabai only the second Indian lifter after Malleswari to win a medal at all major international weightlifting events: the Olympics, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, World Championships, Asian Championships and Commonwealth Championships.

The talking point around the hall was the way Mirabai managed to exorcise the ghosts of her nightmarish campaign in Hangzhou three years earlier. Going into the event as a gold-medal hopeful after her Tokyo Olympics silver, she suffered a severe hip injury mid-lift, collapsing on the platform and eventually finishing a painful fourth. It is a testament to her mental resilience that she picked up the pieces within a year to push for a second Olympic medal in Paris — only to finish an agonising fourth with a total lift of 199kg.

This time around, Mirabai was clinical in her snatch attempts, successfully lifting 83kg, 85kg and 87kg without much trouble. Trailing only Ri Song-gum and Luluk Diana Tri Wijayana heading into the clean and jerk, Mirabai began with a successful 107kg lift before improving to 111kg. She did not attempt a third lift.

A double gold medallist at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow (2014) and Birmingham (2022), the extravaganza among erstwhile British colonies has always proved a happy hunting ground for her, as she burst into the limelight with a silver on her debut at Gold Coast 2018. The Asian Games medal will certainly spur her on for a final fling at the Los Angeles Olympics in two years’ time, but the athlete has meanwhile started her own initiative to produce promising lifters for the future.

While the Manipur government has honoured her with a senior position in the state police, Mirabai has collaborated with her coach and father figure, Vijay Sharma — a Dronacharya Awardee — to establish the Weightlifting Warriors Academy in Modinagar, a facility in Uttar Pradesh focused on encouraging young girls to take up weightlifting.

Around 40 girls were reported to be training there this year — and they are surely in the best hands!