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Saikom Mirabai Chanu will be India's lone representative in the sport of weightlifting at the Tokyo Olympics 2020. The 26 year old weightlifter from Manipur will be competing in the Women's 49kg category.
Saikom Mirabai Chanu's Previous Olympic Record
This will be Mirabai Chanu's second Olympic Games appearance. In her first appearance in Rio, Mirabai had a very disappointing outing. She participated in the Women's 48kg category, where she had a good chance of winning a medal.
She began well in the snatch event by lifting 82kg in her second attempt, which placed her in the 3rd position after the snatch event. After that, in the Clean and Jerk event, she failed to record a successful lift in all of her three attempts, thus crashing out of the tournament, without any medal.
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How Mirabai Chanu's Career Shaped Up After the Rio Olympics
After her disappointment in Rio, Mirabai made an excellent comeback. She won back-to-back gold medals at the 2017 World Championships in Anaheim and the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, in her pet 48kg category. With these performances, Mirabai established herself as the best weightlifter in the world, in her category.
However, the weight categories for the Tokyo Olympics were modified and, in place of the 48kg category, she now had to participate in the newly formed 49kg Category.
This higher weight category was of much disadvantage to Mirabai. In the new category, she had to fight formidable Chinese and North Korean lifters of higher weight and a better record. As a result, Mirabai was no longer the world champion in her new category.
At the 2019 World Championships in Thailand, despite lifting her personal best weight, she finished fourth. At present, Mirabai is the fourth best weightlifter in the world in her new 49kg category.
Tokyo Olympics 2020: Mirabai Chanu's medal prospects
However, in Tokyo, Mirabai is almost certain of winning a medal. This is because two of the top three lifters in her category will not be present at the Tokyo Olympics.
Mirabai will be the second-ranked lifter at the Tokyo Olympics in her category, after China's Hou Zhihui, the current world record holder.
Jiang Huihua (China), the current World Champion in this category, will not be there in Tokyo, as only one weightlifter per country is allowed in each weight category. Ri Song-Gum of DPR Korea, the third best lifter in this category, will also be absent as her country has dropped out of the Tokyo Olympics because of Coronavirus concerns.
Mirabai should be good enough to win silver or bronze, even if she matches her previous personal best lifts. However, winning the gold medal by beating China's Hou Zhihui, the present world record holder, will be a very difficult task for Mirabai.
Hou Zhihui's best lift is of 213kgs, which is 8kgs more than Mirabai's personal best of 205kgs.
Thus, in order to win the gold at the Tokyo Olympics, Mirabai has to punch above her weight and lift at least 7-8 kgs more than her present personal best, which will not be easy.
Considering the pressure of the mega event, many strange things happen.The Indians fan will hope to see their star lifter lift her personal best and beat her high-ranking Chinese opponent in winning the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics.
