Mirabai Chanu doesn't carry the weight of winning

How the 32-year-old weightlifting champion won big by taking the pressure off

While hunting for motivation in these absurd times, you’ll likely come across two traditional schools of thought. First: “Aim for the moon. If you miss, you may hit a star.” And the second: “Rome wasn’t built in a day”. One believes you should go all out, dream big and play big; the other suggests breaking down your goals before they break you down.

But there’s a third, relatively new approach to motivation and success that is more like, “Just be curious and have fun! It’s not that serious!” And it’s being espoused by some of highest achievers of our time, including the internet’s current favourite athletes, Olympic figure skater Alysa Liu who took gold at the Olympics this year. And champion freestyle skier Eileen Gu who is the fourth-highest earning female athlete at just 23. They’ve both talked about how they no longer subscribe to pressure-based performance models, aiming instead to grow as people and professionals, and past the outdated idea that success must always be hard-won.

We see a similar sentiment brewing among female athletes closer home. Earlier this year, the victorious Indian Women’s Hockey team confessed their pre-match ritual includes dancing and goofing around, and now there is a new player on Team Take The Pressure Off: Indian weightlifter Mirabai Chanu Saikhom, who brought home silver from the Asian Games this month.

Beginning in 2013, Saikhom has had a stellar decade representing India at majors internationally, first in the 48 kg category and later upgrading to the 49 kg category. She’s won gold four times at the Commonwealth Games and an Olympic silver in 2020 too. The only medal missing from her growing pile has been an Asian Games medal; she had narrowly missed winning the bronze in Hangzhou in 2023 due to an injury.

So one might assume her return to the Games this year was fraught with pressure and soaring expectations, right? Wrong.

Over a Zoom call days after her win, Saikhom told Tweak that while she had trained as diligently as she always has, she had never been more relaxed while competing. In fact, she shared, this time she deliberately did not aim for gold, knowing fully well that the North Korean champion Ri Song Gum had been on a winning streak that she just wasn’t going to be able to break. Sounds unusual for an international athlete but it clearly worked! With a combined lift of 198 kgs in two attempts, Saikhom brought home the silver.

Still glowing from her victory, Saikhom spoke candidly about how letting go of the pressure to be the best actually helped her lock in and crush her game. How she has learnt to flow with things, including serious injuries that have set her back. And why female athletes are bringing home more weightlifting medals than the men (spoiler: they’re stronger and not just physically).

Forget ‘the’ best, Mirabai Chanu is aiming for ‘her’ best

Tweak: Usually athletes talk about aiming for gold, but you began by adjusting your expectations to silver or bronze. Was that difficult?

Mirabai Chanu Saikhom: It was, but I also knew that the player from North Korea has been consistently holding the top spot. She was just that strong. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to defeat her. I’m being frank here but I knew my capacity. So I took the pressure off and just focused on what I could do. That’s also why I did not attempt the third lift once I learnt I had lifted enough to win a silver. I had gotten what I wanted.

T: Did you give yourself a pep talk before this game or did you just follow your routine?

MCS: I think because this was such an important match for me, I had a bit of fear before it. So I reminded myself of all the training I had done up until that moment, that it was sufficient to do my best, and that I was ready and prepared. I made sure I was only thinking about that and the pointers my coach [Vijay Sharma] was giving me until the last moment. I paid no attention to anything else.

T: How did you react when you found out that you’d won silver?

MCS: To be honest, I did not even know what was going on while I was competing. The coach adjusted the weights and I was only focused on lifting what was in front of me. I did not know I had got the silver until I came down after the second lift and asked my coach why I was not attempting the last one, and [laughs] he very calmly told me, “Silver ho gaya hai” (You’ve got the silver).

T: Now that you’ve achieved your Asian Games dream, what’s your next goal?

MCS: [Laughs] Now that I have everything, I would like to perform even better at the LA 2028 Olympics.

T: How do you start your days when training for major competitions?

MCS: As soon as I wake up, I check how I’m feeling internally and how I’m feeling recovery-wise from the day before. I also do a bit of yoga in the morning to get started. Then I aim to just be mentally ready even if it’s just a normal training day.

T: You’ve had quite a few injuries over the years. How do you deal with the restrictions they put on your performance?

MCS: With physical injuries, it’s not always easy to estimate how long it will take for me to recover—depending on the injury, sometimes it’s fast, sometimes it takes a lot of waiting. I focus on what I should be doing to make it as minor as possible. I don’t stop, I just work my way through different solutions to get better. And of course, I tell myself constantly that it’ll be fine, and I’ll recover like I always do. Injuries are always going to be a part of my life as an athlete, they are inevitable.

T: You grew up with six older siblings, and first realised you were actually stronger than your brothers when you could lift more firewood bundles than them. What do you say to young girls who want to take after you but keep hearing that it’s a men’s game?

MCS: I’d like to say that even though people will say that weightlifting isn’t for girls, you must remember that right now, it’s female athletes who are bringing home more medals in weightlifting. I believe that women are naturally more capable of attaining their goals. We are able to do whatever we put our minds to—that’s what actually makes us much stronger than men.