'Would like to dedicate this to my country': Olympic silver-medalist Mirabai Chanu's heartwarming message
Mirabai Chanu created history on the opening day of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as she became the first Indian women's weightlifter to win a silver medal at in mega event's history.
She bettered Karnam Malleswari, who was the first women's individual athlete to win the bronze medal in the same sport.
In the 49kg category, Mirabai lifted a total of 202kg (87kg in snatch and 115kg in clean and jerk event) to finish with a silver medal. China's Hou Zhihui won the gold medal with an effort of 210kg (94kg+116kg).
Following the historic silver medal win, the 26-year-old Indian weightlifter took to his official Twitter profile to post a heartwarming message. She dedicated the medal victory to the country and thanked all the countrymen for their prayers.
"I would like to dedicate this medal to my country and would like to thank the billion prayers of all Indians which were with me during this journey. I like to thank my family especially my mother for a lot of sacrifices and believing in me. Also special thanks to our government for supporting me, Ministry of Sports, SAI, IOA, Weightlifting Federation of India, Railways, OGQ, sponsors and my marketing agency IOS for their continuous support in this journey," Mirabai wrote.
She also thanked her coach Vijay Sharma and the support staff.
"I would like to give special thanks to my coach Vijay Sharma sir and support staff for their continuous hardwork, motivation and training. Thank you once again entire weightlifting fraternity and all my countrymen. JAI HIND," she wrote.
Earlier, Mirabai had said that she is proud of her achievement and had been dreaming of this moment "for the past five years."
"I am very happy, I have been dreaming of this for the past five years. I am very proud of myself right now. I did try for gold but even silver is a great achievement for me," she told reporters.
