CHAMPION, COACH & THEIR DESTINY

Olympic silver medallist, Mirabai, and her coach Sharma know a thing or two about winning medals. But the athlete has hit a soeed bump post medalling in Tokyo. With injuries finally behind her, the 29-year-old eyes a Paris encore. Indraneel Das spoke with the coach and player at Patiala before they left for the French capital

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FOR an athlete, invincibility and immortality fade with injury. Every little thing hurts, sometimes more than the injury and even failures. There is a small anecdote that a support staff was narrating about the Tokyo 2020 Olympic weightlifting silver-medallist Mirabai Chanu. The Asian Games was a disaster (another Asian Games hampered by injury). When she returned home, she was all alone. No one came to welcome her. There was no brouhaha. She was distraught and hurt. "When I won the Olympic medal, everyone was there, now that I have not won anything, no one is even coming to meet me," she had lamented. That's the predicament an athlete lives with. Mirabai too had to learn to live with it.

Paris Olympics is where she is hoping to redeem herself. Once again plagued by injury in the runup to the Games, it has not been the best buildup. One last lift. One last hurrah. That's all she is dreaming of right now. Days before leaving for the Olympics, the training centre National Centre of Excellence (NCOE) in Patiala-converted itself into a giant edifice of hope. Players were seen going through their last-minute rituals. Some were taking a break while some were just loitering around and finding solace in the familiar and friendly settings of the sprawling campus. For some it's more than a training centre. Mirabai too misses the centre while away competing or training. "I miss this place even when I am home!" she confides.