Mirabai Chanu Career Journey
When the lightest Olympic category moved to 49kg, Mirabai adapted quickly. She lifted a world record 119kg in the clean and jerk at the 2021 Asian Championships, and a few months later took Tokyo silver with an Olympic record 115kg in the same lift. She added Commonwealth gold in Birmingham and world silver in Bogota in 2022, but a thigh injury on her final attempt at the Hangzhou Asian Games left her fourth and disrupted her build-up to Paris. At the 2024 Olympics she finished fourth again, just 1kg short of bronze. After the International Weightlifting Federation introduced new bodyweight categories in 2025, she moved to 48kg and won silver at the World Championships in Forde, Norway, behind North Korea’s Ri Song-gum.
Mirabai Chanu Records and Milestones
- First Indian weightlifter to win an Olympic silver medal (Tokyo 2020)
- World champion in 48kg in 2017 with a competition record total of 194kg
- Former clean and jerk world record holder in 49kg (119kg in 2021)
- Olympic record of 115kg in the clean and jerk at Tokyo 2020
- Three Commonwealth Games golds (2018, 2022, 2026) and one silver (2014)
Mirabai Chanu Awards and Honours
| Year | Award |
|---|---|
| 2018 | Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna (now Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna) |
| 2018 | Padma Shri |
| 2021 | TOISA Weightlifter of the Year |
