Glasgow, July 23: India’s Olympic silver medallist Saikhom Mirabai Chanu believes the country’s weightlifters are well prepared to meet the high expectations at the 2026 Commonwealth Games, saying the entire team is working hard to bring home medals despite a smaller competition field.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Games, the 30-year-old acknowledged the growing expectations from Indian weightlifting, a sport that has emerged as one of the country’s strongest medal prospects at the Commonwealth Games.
“…There is a lot of expectation this time that weightlifting will win more medals. We will give it our best, and we are working very hard. Our team is performing well. Whether we win medals or not will only be known on the day of the event, but we will give our full effort. I, too, will do my very best,” Mirabai told IANS.
Mirabai, however, expressed concern over the reduced number of athletes competing in weightlifting at this edition of the Games.
“It is great to see so many participants from different places this time. One bad thing is that the number of athletes is less. For this, it is not good for the sport. On one hand, it is not good. But whoever has come to participate, we will do our best for India,” she added.
The Commonwealth Games have been the most successful multi-sport event of Mirabai’s career. She won silver on her CWG debut at Glasgow 2014 before producing a record-breaking gold medal performance at Gold Coast 2018. She successfully defended her title with another dominant gold at Birmingham 2022, making her one of India’s most successful weightlifters in Commonwealth Games history.
Mirabai will also be looking to put behind the disappointment of the Paris 2024 Olympics, where she narrowly missed out on a medal after finishing fourth in the women’s 49kg category.
Looking back at that campaign, the Manipuri weightlifter revealed that an injury severely affected her preparations.
“While preparing for the Olympics, I was unable to handle heavy training loads. Whenever I increased the load, I had to stop training because of the pain. My injury had not fully recovered, so I could not give my maximum effort. As a result, I trained much less than I had planned, and that is probably why I could not deliver the performance.”
Hailing from the village of Nongpok Kakching in Manipur, Mirabai has scripted one of Indian sport’s most inspiring stories. The defining moment of her career came at the Tokyo Olympics, where she won the silver medal in the women’s 49kg category to end India’s 21-year wait for an Olympic medal in weightlifting. The historic achievement cemented her status as one of India’s greatest weightlifters and a role model for aspiring athletes.
Now fully fit and with another Commonwealth Games campaign ahead of her, Mirabai will once again carry India’s hopes as she aims to add another chapter to her remarkable legacy.
