Weightlifting
Mirabai Chanu at Olympics 2024: Her opponents and medal chances
Injuries and a sub-par season have raised a question mark over the India star's medal quest at Paris.
Mirabai Chanu will be looked up to as one of the possible medalists for India at the Paris Olympics. (File Photo: AGNS)
Deemed as the queen of Indian weightlifting, Mirabai Chanu is the only Indian weightlifter who has made her way to the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The silver medalist from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Chanu has a lot of hopes on her shoulders, probably much more than what she lifts.
Competing in the women's 49kg category, Mirabai Chanu will be aiming for consecutive podium finishes at the Olympics but her path to glory won't be easy this time.
At Tokyo, Mirabai Chanu was at the top of her game but the same cannot be said now. Plagued by injuries in the last two years, she finished fourth at the 2023 Asian Games.
The Bridge analyses the chances of Mirabai Chanu at the 2024 Paris Olympics and takes a look at her opponents:
Mirabai Chanu (India)
Personal Best Total: 205kg
Personal Best Snatch: 88kg
Personal Best Clean and Jerk: 119kg
Season Best Total: 184kg
Surodchana Khambao (Thailand)
Personal Best Total: 200kg
Personal Best Snatch: 90kg
Personal Best Clean and Jerk: 110kg
Season Best Total: 194kg
Mihaela Valentina Cambei (Romania)
Personal Best Total: 199kg
Personal Best Snatch: 92kg
Personal Best Clean and Jerk: 109kg
Season Best Total: 199kg
Jourdan Delacruz (USA)
Personal Best Total: 200kg (207 in the 55kg category)
Personal Best Snatch: 89 kg
Personal Best Clean & jerk: 112 kg
Medal Chances for Mirabai Chanu
Hou Zhihui of China is the favourite to defend her 2020 Tokyo gold medal and has the highest personal best among the whole field.
She has a personal best of 217kg with 120kg in clean and jerk and 97kg in snatch.
The remaining two places will have four contenders with Mirabai Chanu being one of them.
Given that her strong suit is clean and jerk, Mirabai is expected to trail in the snatch and come back to execute a good lift in the clean and jerk.
Mirabai Chanu has the second best overall lift among all the competitors and also has the experience of medaling at big events but at the moment she hasn't competed much in the season thus far.
Owing to recurring injuries, she has been either in rehab or in recovering and a sub-par season has been the outcome for Mirabai.
However, closer to the Olympics, her coach Vijay Sharma confirmed that she is pain-free and practicing well.
And if the final goes somewhere around 202-205kg, Mirabai has a big chance of winning another medal at the Olympics and cementing her place in history.
