On return to competing and making a return to the 48kg category, Mirabai, the silver medalist in Tokyo Olympics, said winning the gold medal in that competition made for memorable moment in her career.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cI am really very happy. It has been a long time since I won a medal at the Championships. It was also my first competition after making a change to the 48kg category.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cIt was memorable as this is the first time I have won a medal for India in this category in the competition. I am very happy,\u201d in a conversation with IANS on Friday, on the sidelines of PlayCom 2025 summit.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
In that competition, Mirabai lifted 84kg in snatch and 109kg in clean and jerk to come first with a total of 193kg. The decision to cut one more kg to fit into the new weight category paid off as she qualified for the 2026 Commonwealth Games.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
With one event ending, the instant planning starts for what comes next. For Mirabai, the next target will be to bring a medal for India in the World Weightlifting Championships, to be held in F\u00f8rde, Norway from October 1-10.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cWe, the entire Indian team, is preparing very well. We will try to win medals for everyone here. We will get to know what is going to happen on the day of the competition, but the Indian team is preparing very well for it,\u201d added Mirabai.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Meanwhile, during a panel discussion centered around the Olympics at the summit, former India women\u2019s hockey captain Rani Rampal spoke on the team\u2019s journey, including the heartbreak of losing out on a medal at the Tokyo Olympics and what\u2019s needed for the side\u2019s growth in future.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\"My journey has been a long one. Sometimes, we don\u2019t even want to recall our first Olympics. But that experience gave us a lot of learnings. Tokyo was completely different - after losing our first three games, everyone had lost hope in us.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cBut we kept believing in ourselves, won the next two matches, and then defeated the table-toppers Australia in the quarterfinals. The whole country was watching hockey that day and it was the real change.\"<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\"My journey has been a long one. Sometimes, we don\u2019t even want to recall our first Olympics. But that experience gave us a lot of learnings. Tokyo was completely different - after losing our first three games, everyone had lost hope in us.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cThe transition phase is always very challenging. We often talk only about medals, but not about progress. The question is - how do we support athletes going through that transition? That\u2019s why we need to put much more focus on grassroots development,\u201d she said.<\/p>\r\n\r\n