CHENNAI: For an athlete, invincibility and immortality fade with injury. Every little thing hurts, sometimes more than the injury and even failures. There is a small anecdote that a support staff was narrating about the Tokyo 2020 Olympic weightlifting silver-medallist Mirabai Chanu. The Asian Games was a disaster (another Asian Games hampered by injury). When she returned home, she was all alone. No one came to welcome her.
There was no brouhaha. She was distraught and hurt. “When I won the Olympic medal, everyone was there, now that I have not won anything, no one is even coming to meet me,” she had lamented. That’s the predicament an athlete lives with. Mirabai too had to learn to live with it.
Paris Olympics is where she is hoping to redeem herself. Once again plagued by injury in the run-up to the Games, it has not been the best buildup. One last lift. One last hurrah. That’s all she is dreaming of right now.
Days before leaving for the Olympics, the training centre — National Centre of Excellence (NCOE) in Patiala — converted itself into a giant edifice of hope. Players were seen going through their last-minute rituals. Some were taking a break while some were just loitering around and finding solace in the familiar and friendly settings of the sprawling campus. For some it's more than a training centre. Mirabai too misses the centre while away competing or training. "I miss this place even when I am home!" she confides.
In one corner is the women’s hostel – shared by Olympic medallists and international athletes. Mirabai is one among them. It was Thursday (June 27), an off-day from training, about 10 days before she and her coach left for France for training. The pressure is slowly building. She has to defend the medal and has just about recovered from her injury.
For coach Vijay Sharma, this is the time to build confidence. He feels the physical training and workout phase is over and it is all about the mind now. He was at the newly-renovated weightlifting hall in Patiala, putting together Mirabai’s Paris journey. “You cling on to anything that gives you that two per cent boost,” he says. “Whatever gives you hope and confidence soothes the mind. This is the time when players think that even if we get two per cent benefit, it’s huge. Mira and I have spoken to the sleep therapist and have learnt a few things. We think that these things will come in handy.”
“The next few weeks are very important,” Sharma sounded almost prophetic. “This is the time when we have to gain in confidence; how to reach and maintain her peak. We have trained until now. How we can convert this training into a good result will depend on these intervening weeks.”
Mirabai’s coach is like her shadow. The two have been together for more than a decade and he plans everything for her. The ‘I’ has given way to ‘we’. Whenever the coach spoke, it was about 'us' and not 'me'. It was not all about success either. Sports apes the vicissitudes of life and it was apt when he said, “We learnt from our failures and we have been still learning.”
The learning curve
Like a Zen master, Sharma remained calm and spoke about life as a string of lessons and an ongoing experience. His words transcend into philosophy. “Over the years through participation, we learn. Players automatically learn as well. It was our first Olympics in Rio and we learnt from our mistakes. We were almost assured of a medal but that did not happen. Then, there was a big slip during the Asian Championships. There were a lot of criticisms. Then in 2017, we made a comeback and became the world champion.”
Mirabai echoed Sharma and spoke about 'the' moment in Rio. “Competing in different competitions gives you different kinds of experiences,” she said. “Rio was bad but over the years, we have improved and learnt from the experiences. There is always pressure. For the first Olympics in Rio, we did a lot of hard work. The total weight that I lifted during the trials before Rio was good enough to fetch me silver at the Games. I don’t know what happened on that day. Pura blank ho gaya (I blanked out).”
Making a comeback is one of the toughest journeys for an athlete. Rio was a failure and she had to claw back. And for this, she is facing another adversary now – injury. The coach knows about it and admits that each has its own challenges. Injury is perilous and can mercilessly shatter an athlete.
“The first time (after Rio) I managed to revive the faith saying that we failed by chance. It is not possible that we fail without making mistakes.
There must be some kind of shortcomings somewhere. In 2016 (Olympics), there was not much support either. I am talking about Olympic-level support. I did not know much then. There, we learnt how important mental health is. Only training is not enough. As we started competing more, we started learning. Not just winning but also how to cope with failure, how to fight depression. We also thought that everything was over (after the 2016 Olympics) and didn't know what would happen.”
Failure at that level would always haunt and torment an athlete. Sharma knew this and worked accordingly. “You will realize that I am weak and I have to work on this. If you want to survive then you have to accept this," he said adding, otherwise, one can be shielded in an orb of lies. "Good thing for us was that we realized our shortcomings in Rio and we started to work on it. We became the world champion in 2017 and in 2018, we created a Commonwealth record.
Then again she was injured and had to miss the Asian Games. We consulted all doctors in India, Delhi to Mumbai. Sometimes, I think just hard work and training don’t work, one needs luck as well. The same thing happened at the 2022 Asian Games.” At the 2017 Worlds, Mirabai lifted 85kg in snatch and 109kg in clean & jerk for a total of 194kg (in 48kg weight category). She had been improving her record and won silver in Tokyo with a total lift of 202kg (in 49kg).
Injury comeback
That’s how destiny works. Sharma feels coming back from injury is completely different. “It may be a failure in some sense but the two (losing and injury) are completely different. In competition, one can point out that this was your mistake and we have to work on this. But when it comes to injury, recovery is completely different and it’s very difficult. Our future is not in our hands. It’s in the hands of doctors and God. One has to go through rehab and how long will it take. There is an uncertainty and one needs more moral support here. But now a very good ecosystem has developed. Earlier, there was only the coach. Now, it’s a team. We have a psychologist, a physio and trainer. It’s better.”
Not just that Mirabai usually goes to the US for injury rehabilitation. "The centre is very good. For strengthening and conditioning we go to the US and this time we have spent three weeks," says Sharma.
Injury is behind Mirabai now. Only focus is lifting weights on August 7. At the previous Games, Mirabai’s event was on the first day; this time it is on August 7. The coach has planned for that as well. “We will reach France four weeks ahead of the competition and we will enter the Games Village only on August 4. We will not look anywhere or speak to anyone before the competition. We will focus on the event. No distraction.”
The team reached on July 7. That will help them acclimatise and get used to the sleep pattern. "We will work on our targets and make adjustments to meet them if required," says Sharma.
For Mirabai, life has taken a fortuitous turn after Tokyo in 2021. “Life is different. People started recognizing me and what is very heartening is that more and more girls have started pursuing the sport. It is really good that a woman has won a medal for the country and it is a sign of empowerment. This has also given a lot of hope to other Indians and has given them reasons to dream. They too believe that they can win a medal for the country. That itself is motivating and inspiring for me.”
Paris is where Mirabai would want to cement her place among India's Olympic legends. It is possible. With lessons and experience, she knows that one good lift is all that she needs. “It all depends on that particular day but one good lift will be enough,” she says.
The coach and his ward could be in their final leg of a stupendous sporting journey. Mirabai, at 29, is not growing younger and with her body scarred by injuries, lifting until the next Olympics would be a big challenge. It may be now or never!