Karnam Malleswari

#63/100 in #100extraordinarywomen

Before September 19, 2000, Karnam Malleswari was passed off as another nondescript weightlifter. After September 19, 2000, she became a household name, a celebrity whom news reporters chased for story bytes. After all, she had won a bronze medal in weightlifting at the Sydney Olympics. It's been over seventeen years since she achieved this feat but she remains the only weighlifter ever in India to have won an Olympic medal. With that, she had also become the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal.

Malleswari was born on June 1, 1975 in a small village Voosavanipeta in Andhra Pradesh. She has four sisters and all are well trained in weightlifting. She started her career when she was 12 and was trained under coach Neelamshetty Appanna. She practiced weightlifting in her village gymnasium. Her younger sister Krishna Kumari is also a national level weightlifter. Karnam Malleswari did her schooling from ZPPG High School in Amadalavalasa. Her father was a constable in the Railway Protection Force. She moved to Delhi with her sisters and was soon spotted by the Sports Authority of India. Then in 1990, Malleshwari joined the national camp and four years later, she was a world championship winner in the 54-kg class. Malleshwari was coached by Leonid Taranenko, a renowned weightlifter, who holds a number of world records.

Malleswari won the world title in the 54 kg division in 1994 and 1995 and placed third in 1993 and 1996. In 2000, Sydney Olympics, Malleswari lifted 110 kg in the “snatch” and 130 kg in the “clean and jerk” for a total of 240 kg. She won the bronze medal and became the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal. By her incredible achievement, she lifted the sagging spirits of not just the Indian contingent which had accompanied her at Sydney but also those of everyone back home. This amazing lady had made every Indian chest swell with pride. That was the only medal India had won in the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

The feat achieved by Malleswari was much applauded and was celebrated widely among all the sections of the nation transcending regional boundaries that often limits us as a country. This victory was different; this victory brought glory not only to one region or a particular class of people but to every section of the society. This victory was merely not against the competitors but was also against all those detractors and that section of society who looked down upon her for taking up sports as her career and that too for specifically choosing weight lifting as her area of interest. The victory of Karnam Malleswari was a tight slap on all those people who thought she would never win as weight lifting was a ‘Masculine’ sport.

Prior to the Olympics, in 1994 she won gold in a World Weightlifting Championships in Istanbul and in 1995 she won the Asian Weightlifting Championships in Korea in the 54 kg category. She won the World Weightlifting Championships title in China, in the year 1995 with a record lift of 113 kg. Even before her Olympic win, she was a two-time weightlifting world champion with 29 international medals, which includes 11 golds medals.

Along with the national and international medals, she was also awarded with the Arjuna Award in 1994, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna in 1999, India's highest sporting honour, and the civilian Padma Shri in 1999. In 1997, she had married a fellow weightlifter Rajesh Tyagi. Just after her 2000 Olympic win, she gave birth to a son in 2001. She had planned to return to competitions at the 2002 Commonwealth Games, but withdrew eventually due to the death of her father. She retired after failing to score at the 2004 Olympics. She currently lives in Yamunanagar with her husband and works at Food Corporation of India.

True to her name ‘Karnam’ which in Sanskrit stands for Pride, Dignity, and Fame, India’s Weightlifting champion proved that if a woman desired, she could become physically as strong or even stronger than men. Malleshwari is known as the "iron girl of Andhra Pradesh". Karnam Malleswari is an epitome of inspiration for the simple reason that she did not let the social conditioning prevent her from chasing her dreams and for the dedication she has shown and sacrifices she has made to reach to the top spot which was left vacant until she announced her entry into world of sports and for boldly speaking against the shortcomings in the process of selection of players. We salute this lady for the passion she has for sports and for her unwavering determination to prepare the next champion who will carry on the legacy left behind by her.

Source: Wikipedia and Google search.