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Mirabai Chanu completed one of Indian sport’s great trilogies at the Commonwealth Games 2026 in Glasgow on Sunday, winning the women’s 48kg weightlifting gold with a dominant total of 190kg — setting Games records in snatch (85kg), clean and jerk (105kg) and overall total — to become a three-time consecutive Commonwealth Games champion and claim India’s first gold medal of Glasgow 2026 by a commanding 22kg margin.
Twelve years ago, a 19-year-old from Nongpok Kakching in Manipur walked into this very city and walked out with a silver medal around her neck — the first major multi-sport medal of her career, a moment that started everything. On Sunday evening at the SEC Armadillo, that same woman — now 31, now an Olympic silver medallist, now a former world champion and two-time Commonwealth Games champion — walked back into Glasgow and completed one of Indian sport’s great trilogies. Mirabai Chanu is a three-time consecutive Commonwealth Games champion. She did it with three Games records. She did it by 22 kilograms. She made it look easy.
Glasgow, Scotland: India’s Mirabai Chanu produced a brilliant performance to win the women’s 48kg gold medal at the Commonwealth Games 2026 in Glasgow on Sunday, completing a hat-trick of weightlifting titles at CWG in an emphatic fashion. The Tokyo 2020 Olympic silver medallist finished with a total lift of 190kg — 85kg snatch and 105kg clean and jerk — breaking the Games records in all three categories: snatch, clean and jerk, and overall total. Mirabai finished a commanding 22kg clear of the rest of the field.
The gold is Mirabai’s fourth Commonwealth Games medal, having won silver in the 48kg category at Glasgow 2014 before striking gold at Gold Coast 2018 and Birmingham 2022. It is also India’s first gold medal at Glasgow 2026 — and it arrived in the most emphatic style imaginable.
Back Where It All Began
The symmetry of this result deserves a moment of appreciation. Mirabai returned to the city where she won her first major multi-sport medal, a silver at Glasgow 2014, and added another chapter to her decorated career. She was a teenager then — unknown, unheralded, competing at her first Commonwealth Games. Sunday was the opposite of that. Every person in the SEC Armadillo knew exactly who Saikhom Mirabai Chanu was, what she had already accomplished, and what she was capable of. She delivered beyond even those elevated expectations.
She set a new Commonwealth record in the snatch with a best lift of 85kg in the women’s 48kg final. After an unsuccessful opening attempt at 82kg, Chanu cleared the same weight on her second attempt before improving to 85kg with her final lift to set new Games and Commonwealth records. The failed opening attempt — the only blemish of an otherwise flawless evening — was waved away with the composure of a champion who knows her own capabilities better than anyone else in the arena.
She had claimed the 48kg title at Gold Coast 2018 with a Games-record 196kg (86kg+110kg) before moving to the 49kg category to win gold at Birmingham 2022 with another Games-record of 201kg (88kg+113kg) in the division. Glasgow’s 190kg total is lower than those two records in absolute terms — a reflection of the different weight categories and the physical challenges of a career that has now spanned three Commonwealth Games cycles — but the dominance was identical. Nigeria’s Ruth Asuquo Nyong claimed the silver medal with a total of 168kg, while Malaysia’s Irene Jane Henry settled for bronze on 167kg. The silver was 22kg behind the gold. In weightlifting terms, that is a different universe.
Read More: Rishikanta Singh wins silver in men’s 60kg weightlifting at Commonwealth Games 2026
The Injury That Made This Even More Remarkable
Mirabai returned to international competition after missing the Asian Weightlifting Championships earlier this year while recovering from a shoulder injury. Her most recent competitive outing before Glasgow was the national championships in February, where she won the 48kg title — a statement of fitness and readiness that belied the months of rehabilitation that preceded it.
A shoulder injury, at 31, for an athlete whose entire sport demands she hoist weights above her head with perfect technique — the fact that she came back from that and broke three Commonwealth Games records speaks to a combination of physical resilience and mental fortitude that defines everything Mirabai Chanu stands for. At the 2025 Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships in Ahmedabad, she lifted a total of 193kg to set new Commonwealth Championship records in snatch, clean and jerk, and total — including 84kg in snatch and 109kg in clean and jerk, both setting new Commonwealth Championship records. That performance secured her direct qualification for Glasgow and served as the clearest possible signal of her readiness. Sunday confirmed it beyond all doubt.
ALSO READ: India CWG 2026 Day 3 results: Sachin storms through, but India’s Gymnastics team falls short
What Three Consecutive Golds Really Means
Let the numbers land for a moment. Three Commonwealth Games. Three gold medals. Three Games records — in each of the three categories that matter: snatch, clean and jerk, and total. No Indian weightlifter, male or female, has ever won three consecutive Commonwealth Games gold medals in the same event. Very few athletes from any nation in any sport have managed a hat-trick of CWG gold medals in individual events. Mirabai Chanu is now among them.
Mirabai seals the title by setting a new Commonwealth Games record with a total lift of 190kg and becomes a three-time consecutive Commonwealth Games gold medallist, further cementing her legacy as one of India’s greatest weightlifters. The legacy, at this point, needs no further cementing. It is already set in the kind of steel that does not rust.
For Glasgow, this gold carries a special resonance. This was the city that gave her the silver that started everything — the medal that told a 19-year-old girl from Manipur that she belonged among the world’s best. Twelve years later, she came back and told Glasgow something in return: that the best was still very much to come.
India’s Medal Day and What Lies Ahead
Mirabai’s gold, alongside Rishikanta Singh’s silver earlier in the day, gave India a remarkable weightlifting double on Day 4 of the Glasgow Games. With M Raja competing in the men’s 65kg final later on Sunday evening, India have the prospect of extending that weightlifting haul further before the day is out.
The broader medal picture at Glasgow 2026 — a Games without shooting or wrestling, India’s traditional medal factories — makes every podium finish more significant. Mirabai’s gold is not just India’s first of the Games; it is the gold around which the entire campaign’s narrative will be written. The flag-bearer at the Opening Ceremony delivered. The champion returned to where it all began and made history all over again.
Result: Mirabai Chanu (IND) — Gold, 190kg total (85kg snatch — Games Record + 105kg clean and jerk — Games Record)
Silver: Ruth Asuquo Nyong (NGR) — 168kg (75kg + 93kg)
Bronze: Irene Jane Henry (MAS) — 167kg (77kg + 90kg)
Winning margin: 22kg
Mirabai Chanu — CWG Career:
Glasgow 2014: Silver (48kg)
Gold Coast 2018: Gold (48kg) — 196kg — Games Record
Birmingham 2022: Gold (49kg) — 201kg — Games Record
Glasgow 2026: Gold (48kg) — 190kg — Games Record (snatch, clean & jerk, total)
India’s CWG 2026 Medal Tally (after Day 4):
🥇 Mirabai Chanu — Women’s 48kg Weightlifting
🥈 Rishikanta Singh — Men’s 60kg Weightlifting
🥉 Jhandu Kumar — Men’s Heavyweight Para Powerlifting
(Lovlina Borgohain — Women’s 75kg boxing medal assured; bout July 31)
