“I was disappointed. There I was, standing with an Olympic bronze medal around my neck, but all I could think of was missing out on the gold,” says Karnam Malleswari, the first Indian woman weightlifter to bring home an Olympic medal. She created history at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 by lifting 110 kilogram and 130 kilogram in the ‘snatch’ and ‘clean and jerk’ categories. “I had worked hard and believed I deserved gold. So coming third in something that you are really good at, is not a memory that fades away easily,” says the former weightlifter who was awarded Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna in 1995.
Karnam says it was only in the days following that, did her sense of achievement sink in. “The country was celebrating my win. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee congratulated me on phone and called me ‘Bharat ki beti’, he also recited a shayari which I frankly did not understand,” she chuckles, “Newspapers carried reports about soldiers at the border congratulating me and calling me an inspiration.”
Two decades after the historic win, the event is to be documented in a biopic, that is yet to be named. Kona Film Corporation and MVV Cinema announced the movie on June 1 — on Karnam’s 45th birthday. The multilingual biopic to be released in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi, will be directed by Sanjana Reddy. “Several people had reached out to me for a biopic before this, but I knew it was right when I was told that the movie will highlight my struggle for the medal and how I made my way from a tiny hamlet in Andhra Pradesh to Olympics 2000,” recalls Karnam who was born and raised in Voosavanipeta in Andhra Pradesh’s Srikakulam district.
- Bronze medal in the 1993 World Weightlifting Championship, Melbourne
- Silver medal in the 1994 Asian Games, Hiroshima
- Gold medal in the 1994 World Weightlifting Championship, Istanbul
- Gold medal in the 1995 World Weightlifting Championship, Guangzhou
- Silver medal in the 1998 Asian Games, Bangkok
- Bronze medal in Olympics 2000, Sydney
The journey
While the movie will highlight her achievements, Karnam says what excites her is that there may be children watching it who will then dare to dream. “Even if one child believes that no dream is too big to chase, my work here is done,” says the champion who started training at the age of 12 with no proper equipment. “I trained in the fields and never bothered about those who criticised me for taking up a sport that they thought was ‘manly’. So I hope this biopic inspires little girls to follow their passion irrespective of what society thinks.” From the current generation of weightlifters Karnam believes that Meerabai Chanu (won a gold medal in 2018 Commonwealth games in Gold Coast) is an inspiration and also India’s hope for a medal in the upcoming Olympics.
Karnam currently lives in Yamunanagar, Haryana, with her husband and works as chief general manager at the Food Corporation of India. She also runs the Karnam Malleswari Academy for weightlifting. “All these years, I wanted to give back to my sport and what better way to do it than popularising it amongst the young. The aim is provide them with world class facilities and chisel out well-trained weightlifters. Our country has enough facilities for the established sportsperson but there is hardly any infrastructure at the grassroots level. Through this academy, I want to create a platform where kids from across the country can train and prepare for the toughest competitions,” she says.
Though she no longer lifts weights, Karnam oversees the running of the academy and personally teaches the students technique and fitness. “Currently, we have 50 students who train under four coaches. These coaches and I chalk out special diets for each student. By the end of the year we will move the academy to a larger space where we can accommodate almost 300 students and provide them with boarding facilities.” Karnam wants to start another academy in Andhra Pradesh. “Whatever I am today is because of that place and the blessings of Telugu people, so it is my duty to do something for them,” she says.