Mirabai Chanu wins CWG gold: How the lifter’s relationship with the Games evolved | Sport-others News

5 min readJul 26, 2026 08:43 PM When Mirabai Chanu walked into Glasgow’s SEC Arena as a 20-year-old in 2014, the Commonwealth Games felt enormous.
They were her first major multi-sport Games, and perhaps her first chance to announce that India had another weightlifting star ready to emerge. Every lift carried consequence. Every kilogram mattered.
Twelve years later, she leaves the same city and same venue with her fourth consecutive Commonwealth Games medal – and a golden hat-trick. With nobody to challenge her, Mirabai spiced things up failing to lift in her first attempts in the snatch as well as clean and jerk sections. Once she got her bearings, she continued to rule the 48kg category in the Commonwealth like a monarch.
Her yet another dominant run on Sunday, lifting a total of 190 kg (85 in snatch and 105 in clean and jerk) to win the gold medal, completed a remarkable streak unmatched in Indian weightlifting. It also underscored how Mirabai’s relationship with the event had fundamentally changed over her four appearances. The competition that once represented the biggest stage of her career had gradually become a carefully managed stop on a much larger journey.
That evolution mirrors her own.
In Glasgow in 2014, Mirabai was still introducing herself to the sporting world. Indian weightlifting was searching for its next face after the generation of Karnam Malleswari and Kunjarani Devi, and the soft-spoken Manipuri knew she belonged among the elite. She lifted fearlessly, pushing eventual champion Sanjita Chanu all the way before settling for silver with a total of 170kg.
That silver became the foundation of a Commonwealth career that would stretch over more than a decade, surviving changing weight categories, injuries, Olympic cycles and the relentless demands of staying at the top.
If Glasgow was about ambition, Gold Coast in 2018 became about redemption. Few athletes have arrived at a Commonwealth Games carrying the emotional baggage Mirabai did. Less than two years earlier, she had walked off the Rio Olympic platform without regering a single successful clean and jerk, one of the most painful afternoons of her career. The failure lingered long after the Games ended. Rebuilding her confidence became as important as rebuilding her technique.Story continues below this ad
the time she reached Australia, she was the reigning world champion and one of the strongest athletes in her category anywhere in the world. This time, there was no uncertainty. Mirabai produced one of the most dominant performances in Commonwealth Games hory, totalling 196kg for a gold. The improvement from Glasgow was staggering – 26 kilograms added to her total in four years.
At one level, even that commanding victory reflected an athlete still trying to prove something, where every successful lift was a statement that Rio had been an aberration.
Birmingham in 2022, that need had disappeared. Between Gold Coast and Birmingham, Mirabai had become an Olympic silver medall, one of India’s biggest sporting icons and arguably the finest weightlifter in the Commonwealth. She no longer needed the Games to establish her credentials. Her victory was comfortable, almost inevitable. She defended her title with another Games record, lifting a total of 201kg.
Long before arriving in Glasgow, Mirabai had made her priorities clear. The Commonwealth Games, she admitted, would not receive her absolute maximum because the Asian Games remained the real objective. She spoke openly about avoiding unnecessary risks, about resing the temptation to chase symbolic milestones such as a 90kg snatch, and about preserving her body for Aichi-Nagoya, where the level of competition rises dramatically with the presence of China, North Korea and other Asian powerhouses.Story continues below this ad
A fourth successive Commonwealth title, therefore, says less about her dominance over this field than about her longevity. Across twelve years, the sport has evolved around her. Rivals have emerged and disappeared. Weight categories have been restructured. Injuries have interrupted momentum. Younger challengers have arrived with bigger ambitions and fresher bodies. Yet Mirabai has remained the constant, adapting not only her lifting but also her understanding of where each competition fits within the larger picture.
And today, the larger picture extends far beyond Glasgow.
The Asian Games have long remained the missing piece in an otherwise extraordinary collection. Mirabai owns an Olympic silver medal, a world championship title and now three Commonwealth Games gold medals. Yet, an Asian Games podium has eluded her, partly because of injury and partly because the continental field is considerably stronger than anything the Commonwealth can assemble. In many ways, the Asian Games has become the challenge that the Olympics once represented – a medal that would complete the story rather than merely embellish it.
These Games were a carefully calibrated checkpoint. Every training session, every attempt selection and every kilogram lifted in Glasgow has been planned with Japan in mind. Unlike the eager youngster of 2014, who chased every possible lift because every lift could change her career, today’s Mirabai understands that sometimes greatness lies in knowing exactly what not to chase.
Four Commonwealth Games. Four medals. Four very different versions of Mirabai Chanu.