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Olympic silver medallist Saikhom Mirabai Chanu on Tuesday said her next target is to win an award at the 2022 Asian Games and she additionally means to change the colour of her medal to gold at the Paris Olympics in three years time.
Mirabai Chanu ended India’s more than two-decade long term wait for a weightlifting medal at the Olympics, securing the 49kg category silver medal at the Tokyo Games. Presently back to the country, Mirabai Chanu said she is focusing on the Asian Games gold medal.
“My target is now Asian Games, where there is no medal in weightlifting. I would try my best to bring a medal for India in weight lifting from the 2022 Asian Games,” Chanu said during a virtual press conference.
“After that in 2024 (Paris Olympics), I will try to convert this silver medal into Gold.”
Mirabai Chanu had won a silver and a gold at the 2014 and 2018 Commonweath Games separately. In the middle, she likewise won the World Championships title in 2017. She likewise has a bronze medal from the 2020 Asian Championships yet an Asian Games medal is absent.
The 27-year-old from Manipur had pulled out of the 2018 Asian Games subsequent to neglecting to recuperate from a lower back injury, which likewise constrained her to pull out from the World Championships.
Mirabai Chanu recognized the commitment of her mentor Vijay Sharma in her excursion of turning into an Olympic medallist.
“The more I would say, less it would be. Whenever my training was bad or I had an injury, he always stood by me. He has always supported me and motivated me,” she said, adding he never let her feel low in any of the defeats,” she said.
Mirabai Chanu said Vijay Sharma treated her “like a daughter” and wanted that the coming players, particularly young girls, ought to get a mentor like him.
The 27-year-old from Manipur additionally asked young ladies to take up sports and pushed on the significance of family support.
“I just want to say that the young players, especially girls, there is a perception that girls cannot achieve anything, which is wrong. They can do a lot of things, they have lot of power inside them,” she said.
While family obligations ought not be dismissed, she said young girls should likewise communicate their internal ability to accomplish something.
“All girls must have seen such dreams that ‘I can also do’. Why can’t girls do? I request the families to support their girls in the sport, to go ahead in the fields which they are aspiring,” she concluded.
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