World Weightlifting Championships: Who have won medals for India to date?

The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) organizes the World Weightlifting Championships. The championships were staged for the first time in 1891. The first competition was won by Edward Lawrence Levy of England. However, it took India over a century to earn their first medal. Kunjarani Devi became the first Indian to win a medal at the World Weightlifting Championships in Manchester in 1989, taking silver in the 44kg division. Lalita Polley followed up in the same competition with a bronze. The most medals ever won by an Indian at the competition was by Kunjarani Devi who won seven silver medals at the world weightlifting championships.

Indian weightlifters, led by Kunjarani Devi and Olympic bronze medalist Karnam Malleswari, won at least one medal in each of the seven iterations from 1991 to 1997. Malleswari earned two gold and two bronze medals at the world championships during that period. India had a disappointing record at the world weightlifting championships throughout the following two decades. However, the long wait came to an end after Mirabai Chanu’s gold medal triumph in 2017. She lifted then a world record of 194kg (85 in Snatch and 109 in Clean & Jerk) in the women’s 48kg category. Five years later, India’s ace weightlifter Mirabai Chanu, also the Tokyo Olympics silver medalist, added a silver medal to India in the World Championships 2022. At the World Weightlifting Championships so far, India has taken home 17 medals, including three golds, nine silvers, and five bronze. It’s interesting to note that all the medals in Weightlifting have come from female weightlifters.

Read more: What is Mirabai Chanu’s net worth, salary and brand endorsements?

World Weightlifting Championships 2022: List of all the Indian