After completing her final bit of preparation in St. Louis, United States of America, Indian weightlifter Saikhom Mirabai Chanu departed for Tokyo 2020, which will start on July 23.
The training in the United States, where Mirabai was supervised by national coach Vijay Sharma and assistant coach Sandip Kumar, was sanctioned by the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS), according to Olympics.com. Aalap Javadekar, a physiotherapist, along with her coaches Sharma, Kumar, and Pramod Sharma will accompany the 49 kg weightlifter to the mega event.
Having spent two months last year with Dr Aaron Horschig, her strength and conditioning coach, she returned to the US this year for her second stint. During her previous stint with Dr Horschig, her lower back and shoulder issues were addressed.
In 2016, Chanu had qualified for the Rio Olympics in the women’s 48 kg category, so she will be appearing in the Olympics at Tokyo for the second time in her career. Unfortunately, during the 2016 Rio Olympics, she was unable to finish the competition due to a failure to lift the weight in any of her three attempts at the clean & jerk section.
However, she recovered her reputation in 2017 by winning the Women’s 48 kg category Gold medal by lifting a competition record 194 kg in total (85 kg snatch and 109 kg clean & jerk). She achieved this feat in the 2017 World Weightlifting Championships held at Anaheim, CA. At the 2019 Asian Weightlifting Championships, she won bronze in Clean and Jerk at 49 kg category after winning gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
