Mirabai Chanu Saikhom has an endearing quality.
Even before the lift is completed, she always breaks out into a smile.
This time, she went to the Asian Games in good form, having won a hat-trick of gold medals at the Commonwealth Games in July. Most of her opponents would have their faces twisted in a grimace with teeth clenched in concentration. Mirabai though, would not resist the urge to break out the grin. She would follow it up with a bow to the judges with her hands folded. But there was something different this time. The smile would soon disappear. The expression became stern, the eyes focused, and the walk to the backroom measured and purposeful. It was a smile mixed with relief and elation. It was a smile that came with the knowledge that she had finally become an Asian Games medallist. It meant that reigning world champion Ri was the only real competition Mirabai had on the podium. “The competition at the Asian Games is as tough, if not tougher, than the Olympics. Those early lifts did come with her regular smile, which was quickly replaced by her game face. Until that final heave of the bar over her head. The weights had finally lifted.
At the 2026 Asian Games in Japan, she meant business. For all that she has achieved – a three-time World Championship medallist (including gold in 2017), an Olympic silver-medallist, and a three-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist – she had never won an Asian Games medal. In the country where she won her Olympic medal in the delayed Games of 2021, the 32-year-old earned a silver medal at the Asian Games. Mirabai lifted a total of 198 kg (87 kg in snatch and 111 kg in clean and jerk), finishing second only to North Korea’s Ri Song-gum (total of 215 kg), who secured a hat-trick of gold medals at the Asian Games. Smiles returned to Mirabai’s face after she lifted the bar at 111 kg. The result, though, was always on the cards, especially after China decided not to send any participant in the 49 kg event. The North Korean went on to eventually break her own world record in the clean and jerk, lifting 121 kg to add to the 116 kg she lifted in the snatch event. Being wheeled out of the venue (Hangzhou 2023) is not a happy memory but I will use it as a fuel to motivate me.
Because deep down I know I am good enough to excel at that level, that’s why it is so important for me to do well there,.
“A win always boosts your confidence but I am not missing the bigger picture,” she had told HT before travelling to Japan. It was much the same on Wednesday at the Nagoya City Trade and Industry Centre. That long wait ended on Wednesday. She was a determined force on Wednesday.
Despite the favourable field, her sights had firmly been set on clearing that one hurdle she had struggled to overcome. She finished ninth in her first outing at the Asian Games in 2014. A lower-back injury kept her out of the competition in 2018, and she picked up a hip injury on the platform as she competed at the Hangzhou Games in 2023, where she finished fourth.
