Mirabai Chanu Profile, Stats, Record: Mirabai Chanu makes most of few challengers

Event: Weightlifting

CWG appearance: Silver medal in women’s 48 kg category in 2014 at Glasgow

Biggest win: Gold in the 48kg category at World Weightlifting Championship in 2017

Saikhom Mirabai Chanu, who hails from Manipur, broke into limelight during the trials of Rio Olympics 2016 weightlifting event in Patiala, where she went on to break the 48 kg national record held by women’s national coach Kunjarana Devi for 12 years. After the feat, she became India’s best hope to earn a medal in the Olympics in the women’s 48 kg weightlifting event. But the, then 21-year-old, fell under the pressure of the big stage and failed to complete the event.

But Chanu, who had won the silver medal in the same category at 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, bounced back in 2017 to become only the second Indian, after Karnam Malleswari, to win gold at the at the World Weightlifting Championship in Anaheim, California.

Chanu, who also won gold in the 12th South Asian Games in Guwahati in 2016, is a part of the eight-member contingent from India, who will compete in the Women’s Weightlifting event at Commonwealth Games in 2018 in Gold Coast.