Mirabai Chanu won India's first medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics with a silver medal in the women's 49kg weightlifting category. She became India's first medallist in the sport after Karnam Malleswari.
Mirabai's village Nongpok Kakching was more than 25 km from the Sports Academy in Manipur's capital Imphal. She couldn't afford the daily commute from home to the training academy and so, the truckers near her village gave her a daily lift to the academy.
Mirabai was grateful to the truckers for their help and said that her dream of winning an Olympic medal wouldn't have materialised if it wasn't for the help by the truckers in her early days. Since arriving from Tokyo, Mirabai was in search of the truckers who gave her a free lift.
She expressed her gratitude by giving roughly 150 truck drivers a Manipuri scarf, a shirt, and a full course lunch on Thursday. Mirabai was in tears after the meeting.
"I have made many sacrifices to reach here. To be a big player or achieve something big, you have to make sacrifices and I have made many sacrifices," Mirabai told NDTV.
(With inputs from NDTV)
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