Born into a family of three girls and one boy, in a remote hamlet in Andhra Pradesh where the destiny of most girls from the time they were born was to be an obedient daughter, dutiful home maker and/or perfect mother but certainly nothing of a weightlifter-Karnam Malleshwari was definitely destined to break the stereotypical moulds women were cast in. Malleshwari was born on the 1st of June 1975- a year of glorious firsts for India as we launched our first satellite Aryabhatta into Orbit and won our first and only Hockey World Cup as of now, and so it seems that for Malleshwari being the first woman Olympic medalist was written the stars. Perhaps it is more than a coincidence that her name ‘Karnam’ also means pride, dignity and fame in Sanskrit.
Malleshwari’s father was a constable in the Railway Protection Force, who had also played college level football while her sisters had taken up weightlifting-so it’s safe to say that she had a sporting background-but the irony lies in the fact that it was a member of her family who was not an athlete who motivated her.They say that behind every successful man is a woman, well then behind a successful woman is a mother and Malleshwari’s mother Shyamala was definitely an avant-garde lady. She encouraged her daughters to pursue their dreams, choosing to support them amidst the criticism of relatives and the society for pursuing a traditionally male dominated masculine sport. A young Malleshwariwas inspired to take up weight lifting after seeing her elder sister in the gym, but when she expressed interest in the same, the local coach dismissed her for being too thin. But Malleshwari though dejected, did not let her dreams be shattered that easily and backed by her mother, she decided to pursue weightlifting and prove the naysayers wrong. From then on,her interest and dedication to the sport only spiraled upwards- so much so that after some time she decided to opt out of school to train. As she mentioned once in an interview about those years of training ’’ Oh, bahut pain, bahut pain, you can’t sleep ‘’. Years of sacrifices by both Malleshwari and her family, pain and hard work paid off when a fresh faced sixteen year Malleshwari won silver at the Senior Nationals, and this was just the beginning for the young trailblazer. Two years later she won bronze at the World Championship followed by gold the next year. Malleshwari seemed to be on a roll, her performances getting better and more consistent. She had won twenty nine international medals.
A dip in form after 1996 proved an opportunity for redemption in the form of Olympic glory that was just knocking on her door and also a fitting reply to the less than favorable tabloid articles about her physique and eating habits published by the press. This was the first time the Olympics had a weightlifting event for women. To participate at the games, Malleshwari had to take a huge leap from the fifty four kg category to the sixty nine kg category which was no easy feat. She was not considered a favorite to win, and many claimed she was past her prime. On 19th September 2000 at the Sydney Olympics as she smeared the lifting chalk on her hands, Malleshwari knew that gold was within reach. Today as she sits back and recollects, she admits that a miscalculation by her coaches cost her the Gold. And on that fateful day, as the weights crashed to the floor, after she was unsuccessful in her attempt to lift up the one hundred and thirty seven point five kg barbell, India’s dreams of a Gold crashed to the floor, but Malleshwari did bring back the bronze, the only medal for India from Sydney and the first medal won by an Indian woman in hundred years of Indian participation. This would be her final medal in the sport but it was the start of a glorious era for Indian girls and women. Malleshwari -the Iron lady paved the way for the P.V Sindhus and Lovlina Borgohains who made India proud this year at the Olympics. And it seems fitting that exactly two decades later that Mirabai Chanu claimed Silver for India in the same sport that helped Malleshwari shatter the glass ceiling. Today Malleshwari still harbors hopes of bringing more laurels to the country. She and her weightlifter husband R.Tyagi have started a weightlifting academy where she hopes to groom youngsters to bring back the gold that she herself couldn’t bring. Chanu’s silver may be just the sweet spot to bring back the spotlight on Indian weightlifting, and hopefully come 2024 India will create history at the Olympics one again.
By Ishana Maria de Souza
