CHENNAI: Weightlifting has had its share of fame, shame, injuries and controversies even after Mirabai Chanu's silver at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics held in 2021. The sport that was supposed to look up and march forward managed to slip.
Though there have been speculations about Mirabai's injury, Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWLF) president Sahdev Yadav is optimistic that she will win another medal at the next Olympics in Paris this summer.
Between the buzzer and clanking of metal in the make-shift sprawling AC hall outside the JN Indoor Stadium here on Sunday, the WFI chief said that the sport in fact has been improving.
“We have quite a few young weightlifters who are doing well and will be ready by the next Olympics (LA2028),” said the top WFI official on the sidelines of the Khelo India Youth Games.
Yadav sounded optimistic about India’s chances at the Olympics this time as well. “Even this Olympics also we will do well and surely win one medal,” he said.
“Mirabai is perfectly alright now and there is no sign of injury. She is training at St Louis in the US. She had some injury earlier but she is doing fine now. She will be participating at the Thailand qualifiers even though she has already qualified (in rankings). Another weightlifter may qualify this time but we will know about that later, around June.”
When asked about the platform Khelo India Youth Games and the University Games give to the young lifters, Yadav said that Youth Games is the event that usually is ideal for choosing lifters who can do well later. “In the University Games, usually older weightlifters participate, so it may not be ideal to identify lifters there. Youth Games is the ideal place where we can select or identify talent for the future. If we need to prepare lifters for the future it has to be from here.”
On why women lifters are outshining men in the sport, Yadav felt it all boiled down to discipline or lack of it. “Women weightlifters are more disciplined than men,” he said.
“There were very good men lifters too but they are spoiled because of indiscipline. It is not like that they are not talented and I had high hopes for them and thought they would go to the Olympics. But now we have a new crop of lifters and in the next few years you will see more men doing well.”
Yadav also said that IWLF has its programme of selecting young lifters and that all junior programme is under Khelo India. “Khelo India programme is different but IWLF also is identifying and selecting players. Even here we are selecting and will then send them to National Centres of Excellence (NCOEs).
In fact, we have started scouting young talent from across the country between the age group of 9 and 12-13. We have done it in Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Bihar. It had been quite a good project and will train athletes as per government suggestions as well. We are targeting the 2032 Olympics. These lifters (9 to 13 years of age) will be ready by 2032.”
There is no High-Performance Director with the federation as of now. “We have identified an HPD and he will join next month. We will have an HPD who would train all our coaches and that will benefit us in the long run. We will change the syllabus at the National Institute of Sports, Patiala. It is quite old and outdated. A lot of changes have taken place in the sport.”
On anti-doping Yadav said, it is under control.
“Our initiatives have yielded results and doping is under control. Yet there are some players who are mischievous. There has been doping even at the nationals and here also. We do organise seminars and educate our athletes. We take the whereabouts of our athletes and then share them with National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) as well.
They keep testing. With these efforts, it will be more under control. We have to educate them especially, the young lifters. We have to tell them why it is bad.”
Paris and beyond will be challenge but Yadav felt there is time for LA 2028 and he expects two to three lifters to qualify. “I will not be able to talk about medals right now but I believe Mira will win one. After Paris, we will have to see how it goes.”
