Mirabai Chanu Interview: An Olympian Passion Hard To Extinguish

The Olympic creed reads, "The most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well." For 29-year-old Saikhom Mirabai Chanu, life is a reflection of this creed. As a small kid in Nongpok Kakching village in Manipur, Mirabai did all the physical labour she could to help her family sustain. Youngest of six siblings, Mirabai learned early that she needed to contribute in some way to her family’s survival. She picked firewood - quite literally. In one of her endless trips carrying wood and water back and forth from the forest hills to her home, Mirabai, and her family, realised she had more strength than all of her siblings. It was evident that the girl could lift. 

Her family encouraged her to try weightlifting given her strength. She decided to join a training centre and, once she lifted that, she never looked back. The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist gears up to lift more than just weights on August 7 in the 49kg category - she is expected to lift the weight of a nation’s hope too - which, in my opinion, she should be freed from. The athlete, who is the only Indian weightlifter to win a medal in the Olympics to date after Karnam Malleswari in 2000, has given us her all. She will again “lift to her full ability” in Paris too. What matters is how far she has come despite the odds. 

In an interview with SheThePeople, Saikhom Mirabai Chanu looks back on her journey and tells us what it took for a young girl from Nongpok Kakching village in Manipur to reach the Olympics stage, and why ‘fighting well’ is where it all begins and ends, both in sports and life.  

Redemption of Rio In Tokyo

The loss in Rio 2016, her first Olympics - crushed Mirabai. So much so that she didn’t return home for the next two years so she could train for Tokyo. “Rio was my first Olympic Games. I put in a lot of hard work to prepare for it and I was nervous as it was my first Olympics. The results were not encouraging and yes it was heart-breaking. What followed was a period of sadness on not being able to achieve what I trained for and while I dealt with all of these emotions, to move ahead, I also had to overcome it. I dedicated myself to intense training for Tokyo 2020. It felt like I needed to redeem myself from the setbacks of 2016,” she recalls. 

Mirabai’s sacrifices, training, and spirit showed results as she won at the World Championships and Commonwealth Games. She further trained to improve all the techniques necessary for peak performance. “And it all paid off when I proudly clinched the Silver medal on the very first day for India,” she gleams. 

Mirabai met with a setback at the Asian Games in 2022, but she used the period to reflect and recover. “I took a rest for about 5 to 6 months, and now I have recovered. There have been quite a few changes in my training, and it has been good so far. If I continue to perform well like this, I will definitely be fully prepared to win another medal in the Olympics, and I will strive for it. I can't predict what will happen on that day or what colour the medal will be, but I will make every effort to win a medal for India."

The influence of family

Mirabai comes from a family that practised sports in one form or another. A local football player, Mirabai’s mother gave her not just motivation to pursue weightlifting but also the discipline of an athlete. “Ever since I got into sports, my mom has been my biggest supporter. In the beginning, the training centre was very far and I would get very tired after coming back home. But my mother would encourage me, sometimes scolding me saying 'You have chosen sports as a career, you've taken this step, so you have to go on. You have to fight well.’”

Mirabai may have crossed the first few hurdles to enter the world of weightlifting back then but little did she know that the fight had just started. “My family wasn't very affluent. With six siblings to look after and only my father working, my mother started running a small tea stall near our house to provide for all of us. Training for a sport professionally has its own requirements, from diet to equipment and more. The biggest challenge I faced was with my diet. My coaches would advise me on what to eat, but we couldn't arrange it - we were still finding our stability living from one meal to the next as a big family. But my family cut their own needs, supported mine at the time, and it’s my mother who enabled all of it - I won’t ever take that for granted.”

This feeling of meeting my family after a long span of 2 years is beyond words. I'm grateful to each one of you for showing faith in me and supporting me. Thank you Ema and baba for all the sacrifices you made for me to reach at this level. pic.twitter.com/RlXby6QoOv

— Saikhom Mirabai Chanu (@mirabai_chanu) July 28, 2021

“An athlete must be prepared to make sacrifices”

To become an athlete who excels, who become one of the greats, one must be willing to sacrifice in many aspects of life, affirms Mirabai, who recalls all the times she has stayed away from family on important occasions because she had to prioritise training. She continues, “Additionally, discipline is also important to become a great player, and both the player and the coach play a significant role in this. Following my coach's training plan completely - be it dietary adjustments or rigorous workouts - is a top priority.”

“The nation has become more receptive to women playing sports - but the work is just getting started.”

When a young Mirabai sat at the back of a truck to commute from her village to the training centre, the people called her out for travelling alone. There was fear, commotion, and many stereotypes she and her family dealt with. “This isn’t my story alone. Women do have it tough from early on, and when they’re out there to pursue sports, it’s another terrain altogether. Starting out as a female athlete is challenging, no matter which sports you play. Especially for girls from rural areas who want to play sports, they face many problems and challenges. The families hesitate to send their girls to play because of what people will say and think. This may have changed largely, but not completely.”

My challenge is to break the stereotype about how far women can go. We can dominate in sports. We can definitely weighlight. That's the thing about the Olympics - you get to see stories that are unbelievably true and break boundaries.

In my interactions with several athletes, one common thread that linked all of their concerns is young girls at the grassroots not having enough opportunities to dream big. “We’ve seen many female athletes emerge, especially after the Tokyo Olympics. To give a boost to women in sports, it is important to pay attention to grassroots development and provide all essential support to them. During my time, there was no one to offer support, only my family stood by me.

We now have many young talented athletes, so building infrastructure, developing training programs, and helping them grow is necessary. Another thing which comes to mind is promoting gender equality in sports media coverage and sponsorship deals. For this, even the private companies and organisations will have to come forward.”

“Weightlifting requires me to keep my mental health in check, and it isn’t always smooth”

Mirabai understands the intensity that sports require. To bring that focus to centre stage and maintain composure, especially before a lift is something she has come around to doing event after event. “In weightlifting, the mind plays a significant role. I can't afford to get angry or let my mind wander because it affects our training. I teach my mind to take it easy and to apply whatever my coaches tell me. Sometimes training goes well, and sometimes it doesn't, but I think if it's not good today, I'll do it tomorrow, and that's how I move forward. Whether it's lifting weights or sticking to a schedule - be it in training or competition - it's important to stay calm and enjoy the process. I stay in constant communication with my coach and my mother. They make sure that I do not obsess over things which are not under my control and instead stay relaxed.”

“All is possible”

Although Mirabai finds inspiration in all senior weightlifters in the country, it’s her own home state’s Nameirakpam Kunjarani Devi whose path keeps her grounded. “I watched a lot of videos of seniors weightlifting when I started weightlifting, followed their competitions, and was inspired by their journey to the medals; however, it’s Kunjarani Ma'am who has been my inspiration from the beginning. She is from Manipur itself and has faced a lot of difficulties, and to achieve all that she could despite that convinces me that all is possible.”

What is the one important thing your coach tells you when you’re going to lift?

My coach, Vijay Sir, knows everything about me, so when I step up to lift, he just reminds me about what we've done in training and what we've accomplished. He emphasises those points strongly. He observes every lift in the competition and based on that he tells me what was lacking and how to improve it in the next one so that I can perform better. It's not like he says the same thing every time. It is mostly the guidance that powers me up on stage.

Mirabai, there are many, many young women like you dreaming of entering the world of sports but they fear outcomes and resistance. Drawing from your journey, what is that one thing you wish to tell them?

I want to say - nothing in life is easy, whether it's a job, a game, or anything else. What we want to do, what we want to achieve, is within us but often we don’t show it because we're afraid, afraid of what will happen if we step into sports. Times have changed now in many progressive ways. Every woman, every young girl can go above and beyond and achieve.

I want to tell people that I was so afraid when I started, especially before entering the international arena. I often questioned myself, ‘Would I be able to go to the Olympics? Would I be able to win a medal for India?’ It’s natural to think this way, it shows that we care. Not giving up is usually the answer to the steps going forward. Discipline, hard work and sacrifice are the next steps. 

From Rio to Tokyo and now Paris - your journey has been one of resilience and redemption. What’s your biggest takeaway throughout this journey?

The Olympics is a significant event in any athlete’s life. The takeaway that I’ve learned in the past decade is that each Olympics comes with different challenges and, therefore, prepping accordingly is the key. My preparation has evolved with each event. What’s remained constant throughout this journey for me is my passion for weightlifting and my determination to perform better. 

Rio’s result devastated me. It was tough for me to deal with those emotions back then, but I also knew that bouncing back was the only way forward - and then Tokyo happened. It’s a feeling I cannot describe in words - to bring home a medal for India. I learned more that year, also because we were all dealing with the pandemic. The silver sure did give me a boost back then. It’s Paris time now, and I’m more prepared than ever. All I’ll tell you is, I’ll try my best to bring a medal for my country.