28 Years in the Making: Mirabai Chanu Puts India Back on the Weightlifting Podium

Mirabai Chanu won silver in the women's 49 kg weightlifting at the Asian Games 2026 on September 23, giving India a medal in the event after a long wait — the last Indian weightlifting medal at the Games came from Karnam Malleswari in the 1990s.

Chanu, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic silver medallist and 2017 world champion, finished second in Aichi-Nagoya on the back of clean, controlled lifts across both the snatch and clean-and-jerk.

The medal comes after several injury-affected years for the 32-year-old from Manipur, who has had to manage fitness setbacks around major competitions since her Olympic medal in 2021.

It's India's fifth silver of these Games and adds to a tally that now reads 1 gold, 5 silver and 6 bronze — 13th on the overall table.

For Chanu, it's another entry in a career that already includes a World Championship gold and an Olympic medal. This one came the hard way, on the back of the injuries that have shadowed the last few years of her career.