3 players who can challenge Mirabai Chanu for a medal at Paris Olympics 2024
Indian weightlifter Saikhom Mirabai Chanu set numerous records during her most recent Olympic competition where she took home a silver medal in the women's 49 kg competition. She has also won gold medals in the Commonwealth Games and the World Championships.
Chanu achieved a new Olympic record when she successfully lifted 115 kg in the clean and jerk, which assured India's first Olympic medal at the Tokyo Games.
With a total lift of 202 kg, Chanu won silver in the 49 kg division at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. She became the first weightlifter from India to win an Olympic silver medal, the second weightlifter after Karnam Malleswari to do so, and the second Indian woman to do so after P. V. Sindhu.
She would be looking forward to improving the color of the metal to gold but would be facing severe competition from others around as well. Let’s take a look at some other athletes who can challenge her this time around.
#1 Fang Wan-Ling
Born on December 1, 1999, Fang Wan-Ling is a 24-year-old weightlifter from Taiwan who will be participating in her second Olympic Games.
At the Tokyo, Japan, Summer Olympics in 2020, she competed on behalf of Chinese Taipei. In the women's 49 kg competition, she came in fourth place.
She also participated in the World Weightlifting Championships in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, in the women's 49 kg division. She placed sixth in the women's 49 kg competition at the 2020 Asian Weightlifting Championships, which took place in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, in 2021.
Wan-Ling would look to improve her rankings this time around, having missed her last medal by just a whisker.
#2 Nina Sterckx
Belgian weightlifter Nina Sterckx is a competitor in the 49 kg weight class. She won three medals at the European Weightlifting Championships and was placed fifth in Tokyo during the 2020 Summer Olympics.
Sterckx won gold in the European Junior & U23 Weightlifting Championships in 2019 held in Bucharest, Romania, in the women's junior 49 kg division. Additionally, in the 2022 Junior World Weightlifting Championships held in Heraklion, Greece, she won the gold medal in the women's 55 kg event. With more experience under her belt, she could be a real challenge this year.
#3 Hou Zhihui
Chinese weightlifter Hou Zhihui, who competes in the women's 49 kg division, is a two-time Asian champion, an Olympic champion, and a world champion. She has set 11 senior world records in her career as of 2021. She lifted weights in the 49 kg class at the 2018 World Weightlifting Championships, where she placed second overall and won silver in every lift.
Zhihui earned China's second gold in the women's 49 kg weightlifting event at the 2020 Summer Olympics in 2021. Her total weight of 210 kg, which was three kilograms shy of her world record from the 2020 Asian Weightlifting Championships, set new Olympic records in the snatch, clean and jerk, and overall events. Understandably, she is believed to defend her title this year as well.