There has been little good news for Indian weightlifting recently, be it from the Paris 2024 Olympics or the Asian Games in Hangzhou last year. It would be easiest to blame Mirabai Chanu, the diminutive girl who won a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago. Sadly, she was unable to win medals in the two big events in Hangzhou and Paris.
It takes one champion to respect the efforts put in by another. The Ironwoman of Indian weightlifting, Karnam Malleswari, who won a bronze medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, is still very hopeful about the sport’s future, despite the negativity after the Paris flop show. In a chat with RevSportz, Malleswari said “blaming Mirabai is pointless”.
As one who has seen the highs and lows as a weightlifter in her illustrious career, Malleswari says it will take time to find the next set of champions. “I can only talk of what I am doing at my academy in Yamunanagar (Haryana),” she said. “Over the last three years, I have picked 50 young weightlifters, boys and girls, and am grooming them. The results will come, though to think that overnight an Olympic champion will be born is wrong.”
Having gone through a lot of hardships in her own career, Malleswari is very keen to give back to the sport. And that is how she set up the residential academy in Yamunanagar. Last year, it was officially inaugurated by former sports minister Anurag Thakur. He had expressed surprise at the way the academy has been built and developed and was quoted as saying: “If the Central Government grant for the academy was Rs 5.5 crores, Malleswari would have herself spent more than double.”
The idea of setting up an academy began in 2019. Malleswari and her husband Rajesh Tyagi, again very passionate about weightlifting, wanted to give back to the sport. “Whatever I am today is because of weightlifting,” said Malleswari. “Not many have bothered to come to my academy and see the facilities in Yamunangar. I have not only a hall for training but a full-fledged gymnasium, a kitchen which caters to 50 weightlifters, five coaches, physios and masseurs.
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“Give me time till the next Commonwealth Games in 2026 – I will produce a medallist from my academy. I am not saying I will be able to produce a champion at the next Asian Games as the standards and competition level are high. Give me time till the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, it is my dream to produce a champion from my academy.”
Though the Indian Weightlifting Federation does not like Malleswari’s idea of picking young talent and grooming them, she does not worry about it. “Mujhe results dena hai, aur mai koshish karungee [I have to give results, and I will try],” she said. Talking about the training programme, Malleswari has herself designed it. “I am in New Delhi for five days, but the training schedule followed is what I have given to the coaches. My weekend is spent in Yamunanagar at the academy. There is a continuous monitoring system and we have a kitchen which provides an adequate diet.”
For Malleswari, who is also Vice Chancellor of the Delhi Sports University, the trip to Paris was an emotional one. “After 24 years, I went to the Olympics with my husband and it was very emotional for me,” she said. “I will insist India has talent and the foundation I have set up for the academy will do everything needed to ensure champions will emerge. It may take time, but I am not the sort of person who will give up.”
What’s the kind of money which the Karnam Malleswari Foundation has pumped in? “That is not important, really – my husband and I have already put in Rs 15 crores plus,” she told me. “I am what I am today because of my sport. We have to give back to Indian weightlifting.”