Paris Olympics 2024: Karnam Malleshwari opens Olympic doors for Indian women with medal win in Sydney

In the year 2000, Sydney opened the Olympic doors to women athletes for the first time. This year, Karnam Malleswari wrote a new history by winning a bronze medal in weightlifting. She became the first female athlete to win a medal at the Olympics.

Karnam Malleshwari is an inspiration for women athletes

In the last decade, Saina Nehwal, Mary Kom, PV Sindhu, Sakshi Malik, Mirabai Chanu, Lovlina Borgohan have managed to win Olympic medals and Karnam Malleshwari has been an inspiration to all these women athletes. Karnam Malleshwari's medal in Sydney Olympics 2000 made all this possible. Her victory inspired many girls and made the country proud at the Olympics.

India's only award at the Sydney Olympics

The Sydney Olympics 2000 was nothing special in terms of medals. The country got only one medal, but only one medal was enough to make history. In this edition, a total of 65 athletes from India qualified for 13 Games. However, out of these, only Karnam Malleshwari managed to win a medal. He took it upon himself to win medals for India when all other athletes failed.

Karnam Malleshwari – 'The Iron Lady'

This historic medal win in weightlifting earned her the nickname 'The Iron Lady' in India. The then Prime Minister Atal Bihar Yypayee congratulated her for the medal and called her 'India's daughter'. In Sydney, where most athletes were eliminated in the preliminary round, Karnam Malleshwari managed to win a medal.

How did this miracle happen in Sydney?

A women's weightlifting category was added for the first time during the Sydney Olympics. Although all eyes were on Karnam, she was not a contender for victory. The main reason behind this was that she had not won the World Championship since 1996. Apart from this, he shifted himself to the 69 kg category, under which he never competed in a major tournament on the world stage. Karnam proved everyone wrong and became the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal.

Two times world champion

Karnam Malleshwari was a two-time world champion before winning a medal at the Sydney Olympics. In 1993, he participated in the World Championships for the first time, but had to settle for bronze. The very next year in 1994, she won the gold medal and became the world champion. In the same year, he also won a silver medal in the Asian Games. After this, he defended his title as World Champion in 1995, although he again had to settle for a bronze medal in the competition in 1996. Malleswari won a silver medal at the Asian Games in 1998 and a historic bronze medal in Sydney two years later.

Karnam Malleshwari Awards

Karnam Malleswari was honored with the Arjuna Award in 1994 for his invaluable contribution to weightlifting. In 1999, the Government of India honored him first with the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna and later with the Padma Shri.