When star weightlifter Mirabai Chanu won India its first gold medal at the Commonwealth games, she remembered the voice that always motivated her. While some remember criticism and some remember instructions, for the three-time Commonwealth Games champion, that voice belonged to her mother.Moments after her historic win in the women’s 48kg weightlifting event in Glasgow, Mirabai did not first speak about records, medals or rivals. Instead, she spoke about her mother. “My mother always kept telling me, ‘Yes, you can do it,’ and it’s by listening to her words that I have reached this point today,” Mirabai Chanu said with teary eyes.
3 Jul 2026 | 12:38
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“I have fulfilled my promise”
Speaking after her victory, Mirabai dedicated the medal not only to her coach but also to her mother, saying she had finally kept a promise she had carried for years. “I have fulfilled my promise given to my mother and Coach Vijay sir that I will win Gold again,” Mirabai wrote in an Instagram post on Sunday night.
Photo: Mirabai Chanu with her mother Saikhom Tombi Leima. (Photo: Instagram/@mirabai_chanu)
Her mother’s confidence never wavered
The faith was mutual. Reacting after her daughter’s victory, Mirabai’s mother said she never doubted the outcome. Speaking to ANI, Chanu’s mother, Saikhom Tombi, said she was confident that her daughter would win and revealed that Chanu had sought her blessings before beginning the competition. “I was confident that she would win, and she did. This is the third time I have felt very happy. Today, before she began the competition, she called me seeking my blessings for her success. At 17:00, she called me again to seek my blessings and informed me that she had won her third competition,” she said.
Long before the medals, Mirabai Chanu’s mother saw something special
Long before Mirabai Chanu became an Olympic medallist or a three-time Commonwealth Games champion, her mother noticed something unusual while doing one of the most ordinary chores. Growing up in Nongpok Kakching village in Manipur, Mirabai often accompanied her elder brother, Saikhom Sanatomba Meitei, to collect firewood from the nearby hills. While her brother struggled to carry a large bundle back home, the younger Mirabai would effortlessly lift heavier loads. It was a moment that stayed with their mother, Saikhom Tombi Leima.Years later, Mirabai recalled that it was her mother who first recognised that this was more than childhood strength. “That’s how my mother realised that I have an innate strength and suggested I take up weightlifting,” Mirabai told Reuters ahead of the Paris Olympics.What could have remained an amusing family memory instead became the first step towards discovering one of India’s greatest weightlifters. Rather than dismissing her daughter’s physical strength as unusual for a young girl, her mother encouraged it, a decision that quietly altered the course of Indian sporting history.Today, when Mirabai says the words she remembers most are her mother’s constant reassurance- “Yes, you can do it”- they carry even greater meaning. Her belief in her daughter’s potential had begun years before the medals, when all she had was the sight of a little girl carrying firewood more easily than anyone expected.
