Mirabai Chanu Height, Weight, Age, Husband, Family, Biography & More

Some Lesser Known Facts About Mirabai Chanu

• Mirabai Chanu was born and brought up in Manipur, India. She is the sixth and the youngest child in her family.
  

  Mirabai Chanu’s Birthplace

• Her ideal is Kunjarani Devi. In an interview, she told that
  

  “When I was a kid, I first saw Kunjarani Devi, the sport looked so appealing, I was baffled at how she was lifting such heavyweights. So I told my parents that I wanted to do this, with much reluctance they agreed. In our state, you can compare Kunjarani to weightlifting and Sania Mirza is to tennis. Every Manipuri girl wanted to be like her. I saw Kunjarani Devi’s performance at the 2004 Olympics and dreamt of podium glory.”

  

  Mirabai Chanu’s inspiration Kunjarani Devi

• She started weightlifting in 2008 at Khuman Lampak Sports Complex in Imphal, India. During her childhood days, there was no weightlifting centre in her village. So, for her training, she had to travel 44 km daily. She also stated that
  

  “The coaches would give us diet charts in which chicken and milk were an essential part. But, due to her family condition, she couldn’t afford it every day.”

• She won the first ever competitive gold medal of her career at the age of 11 in a local weightlifting contest.

• Her actual weightlifting journey began in 2011 when she participated at the 2011 International Youth Championship and at the South Asian Junior Games. She won the gold medals in these games.

• In 2013, she participated at the Junior National Championship in Guwahati, India. There, she was awarded the Best Lifter Award.

• In 2014, she represented India at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow (a city in Scotland). Here, she clinched a Silver Medal in the women’s 48 kg category by lifting a total of 170 kg.

• On 31 August 2015, she was appointed as a Senior Ticket Collector in the Indian Railway.

• In 2016, she qualified for the Rio Olympics in women’s 48 kg category. Unfortunately, she didn’t finish her event and failed in winning any medal. In an interview, she said that
  

  “I was really low after the Olympics. It took me a lot of time to get over the disappointment. I even thought of giving up the sport and stop training. The comments in social media, the criticism against my coach really hurt me.”

• In 2017, she got selected for the World Weightlifting Championships held at Anaheim, CA, the United States in the women’s 48 kg category. She lifted 194 kg in total (85 kg snatch and 109 kg clean & jerk) and brought a Gold Medal for India after 22 years; since 1995. Before her, Karnam Malleswari had won two Gold Medals at the World Weightlifting Championships in 1994 and 1995. 

• For the 2017 World Weightlifting Championships, she had to miss the wedding of her sister “Shaya” which was on November 22 in Manipur. In an interview with TOI, she stated,
  

  “Everyone back home was upset with my decision to miss my sister’s wedding. I had come to California on November 12 to get battle ready as I wanted to erase the bad memories of my disappointing Rio Olympics campaign. This gold is the best wedding gift I could have given to my sister.”

• Then, she represented India at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and won India’s first Gold Medal in weightlifting on 5 April in the women’s 48 kg category. She lifted 196 kg total weight (86 kg in Snatch and 110 kg in Clean & Jerk). By lifting 196 kg weight, she smashed the previous weightlifting record which was 175 kg set by Augustine Nwaokolo of Nigeria in 2010.

• On 25 September 2018, she was conferred with the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in Sports and Games; which is the highest sporting honour of the Republic of India by President Ram Nath Kovind at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

• When Chanu bagged silver in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, she became the second Indian weightlifter to win an Olympic medal after Karnam Malleswari who bagged bronze in the 69 kg category at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Soon after her win, during an interaction with the media, she desired that the first thing she would like to eat was pizza to which Domino’s promised free pizza for life to Mirabai Chanu.

• In October 2021, she was featured on the cover page of the famous magazine Vogue.
  

  Mirabai Chanu featured on the cover of Vogue magazine

• In 2021, she was appointed as the brand ambassador of the North Eastern Re Organising Cultural Association FC.
  

  Mirabai Chanu on being appointed as the brand ambassador of NEROCA club

• In 2021, she was selected as the face of the ‘Stay in Play’ campaign of the famous clothing brand Adidas.
  

  Mirabai Chanu in a print advertisement of Adidas

• On 15 January 2022, Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh appointed her as Additional Superintendent of Police (Sports) during a state-level facilitation function in Imphal; he also handed over a cheque of Rs. 1 Crore as a cash reward to her.
  

  Mirabai Chanu with her parents after being appointed as Additional Superintendent of Police (Sports) by Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh in Imphal on 15 January 2022

• On 25 February 2022, she qualified for the 2022 Commonwealth Games in the 55kg weight category after she clinched the gold in the Singapore Weightlifting International in Singapore; she lifted 191kg (86 kg +105 kg) to achieve this feat. ^[3]The Hindu