The Indian Olympic athlete, Mirabai Chanu ended India’s two-decade-long wait for a weightlifting medal that too a silver. The 26-year-old opened India’s account with a silver medal in the 49 kg category on the opening day of the Tokyo Olympics by lifting a total of 202 kg (87 kg + 115 kg) to surpass Karnam Malleswari’s bronze-winning performance in the Sydney Olympics in the 2000 edition.
Mirabai went on to lift 84 kg in her first attempt, before increasing to 87 and then 89 kg to beat her personal best of 88 kg from the national championship last year. However, she could not beat her personal best in the snatch event, settling for 87 kg, which was only behind China’s Hou Zhihui, who won the gold medal with an effort of 210 kg (94 kg+116 kg.
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After Mirabai’s heroic feat, the entire nation came forward to congratulate her. Indian skipper Virat Kohli was not behind in extending his support as he had a special wish for her, while he also urged one and all to support Indian participants at the Olympics in a video message posted by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) official Twitter account.
Captioning the video, BCCI wrote: “#TeamIndia captain @imVkohli has a special message for weightlifter @mirabai_chanu, who won India’s first medal at @Tokyo2020 @IndiaSports | @Media_SAI | @WeAreTeamIndia.”
#TeamIndia captain @imVkohli has a special message for weightlifter @mirabai_chanu, who won India's first medal at @Tokyo2020. 🇮🇳 👏 👏@IndiaSports | @Media_SAI | @WeAreTeamIndia pic.twitter.com/suRbQmB4bd
— BCCI (@BCCI) July 26, 2021
Before the start of the Olympics, renowned cricketers including Rohit Sharma, Mithali Raj, Ajinkya Rahane, Harleen Deol, and Jemimah Rodrigues showed support for all the Indian athletes through the Cheer4India campaign, an initiative of the Narendra Modi government to encourage the Indian players at Olympics.
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Earlier this month, the BCCI announced its association with the campaign. They had tweeted, “The BCCI proudly joins the Honourable Prime Minister of India Shri @narendramodi in extending our wholehearted support to the Team India Athletes @Tokyo2020.”
As many as 127 athletes from India are competing for 85 medal positions in the global event, which is set to run until August 8.
