The champion mindset

Mirabai Chanu brought India’s 21-year long wait to an end for an Olympic medal in weightlifting, bringing home India’s first medal in the Tokyo Olympics 2021. Chanu’s story proves yet again that champions are not those who are born strong but those who recognize their potential and #persevere till success bows down to them!

Mirabai Chanu’s story begins in the far east, where she was growing up with her siblings in Manipur. Every day, she along with her brother and sister would trek to the nearby hill to get firewood for her mother who ran a small tea-stall.

As a mere girl of 12, Chanu had surprised everyone by carrying heavy firewood from the hills to her mother’s tea stall one day, when her brother was exhausted. Everyone patted the little girl on the back complementing her for her strength. Somebody even suggested half in a jest, that she should become a weightlifter, that struck a chord with this young girl from Manipur, who learnt that Kunjarani Devi, another daughter of Manipur had made it to the Olympics in weightlifting.

A dream to become a weightlifter, germinated in the mind of this pre-teen whose biggest achievement till date was lifting firewood that was heavier than herself. But what she had was confidence and fire in belly to prove her worth!

Her family took her aspirations seriously and got her admitted to the weightlifting center that was 22 kilometers away from her home! The cold weather, a 50 kilometers journey to and fro every day, body ache, difficulty to keep her eyes open during classes notwithstanding, she went on to the national levels and into the Commonwealth Games where she won gold. Now she was all set for the Rio Olympics in 2017. She trained hard, did every thing right and was sure of success, but on D-Day she froze and could not perform well.

Dejected beyond measure, she contemplated quitting weightlifting at this point. This was when, her strongest support and biggest source of encouragement, her mother taught her a life lesson that changed her attitude. Her mother told her that quitting is easy but throwing away all the hard work in the face of failure is unforgiveable!

Chanu, therefore threw her disappointment aside, picked up her pieces again and went on to win a gold at the World Championship. But, this was not the end of her troubles.

As training began for the ongoing Olympics, a bad injury set her back. She lost muscle, and she could barely pick up her own weight. This time round however, she did not let it cripple her. She relied on #innerstrength. With her coach’s help, treatment abroad and the unflinching support of her mother ended up breaking a world record in the Asian Championships, to secure a spot at the Tokyo Olympics.

“Anything is possible if I put my will power to it” is the #growthmindset that she carried to the Olympics and rewrote history as she went into the arena with the same fearless confidence that she had as a 12-year-old!

Bravo #MirabaiChanu! You are an inspiration to each one of us!

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