Khumukcham Sanjita Chanu

Khumukcham Sanjita Chanu

Personal information
Nationality	Indian
Born	(1994-01-02) 2 January 1994 Kakching Khunou, Kakching district, Manipur, India
Height	1.50 m (4 ft 11 in) (2014)
Weight	48 kg (106 lb) (2014)
Sport
Country	India
Sport	Weightlifting
Event	53 kg
Medal record Women's weightlifting Representing India Asian Championships 2011 Tongling 48 kg Commonwealth Games Gold medal – first place 2014 Glasgow 48 kg Gold medal – first place 2018 Gold Coast 53 kg Commonwealth Championships Gold medal – first place 2012 Apia 48 kg Gold medal – first place 2015 Pune 48 kg Gold medal – first place 2017 Gold Coast 53 kg
Updated on 28 January 2022

In this Meitei name, the family name is Khumukcham and the given name is Sanjita. "Chanu" is a name suffix.

Khumukcham Sanjita Chanu (born 2 January 1994) is an Indian weightlifter. Born in Kakching Khunou, Kakching district, Manipur, she is a two time Commonwealth Games Champion. Chanu won the gold medals at the 2014 Glasgow and the 2018 Gold Coast events in the women's 48 kg and 53 kg weight category respectively. She holds the Commonwealth Games record of 84 kg for the Snatch segment in the latter weight category.

Background

She was born to a Hindu Meitei family. Sanjita took up the sport weightlifting in 2006 in Manipur. She considers pioneering weightlifter and fellow Manipuri, Kunjarani Devi, her hero.

Career

2014 Commonwealth Games

Khumukcham Sanjita Chanu won a gold in women's 48kg weightlifting at the 2014 Commonwealth Games; it was India's first medal on the second day of the competition. She started with an attempt at 72 kg and later lifted 77 kg, not dropping any weight in snatch. Chanu took an unassailable lead with a 96 kg lift in the clean and jerk event to secure the gold medal with a total weight of 173 kg. Chanu's total of 173 kg missed the Games record (held by the 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medal winner Augustina Nkem Nwaokolo) by two kilograms. However, her 77 kg lift in the snatch segment equalled Nwaokolo's Commonwealth Games record.

2018 Commonwealth Games

Chanu won her second successive gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in the 2018 edition held in Gold Coast, Australia. She had moved to a higher weight category of 53 kg and secured the title with a total lift of 192 kg, 10 kg more than second-placed Dika Toua. En route to her gold medal, she bettered her performance from 2014 Commonwealth Games and broke the Games record for the snatch category with a lift of 84 kg; she lifted a weight of 108 kg in the clean and jerk segment.

Doping bans

On 30 May, Chanu was provisionally suspended by the IWF after testing positive for testosterone. In 2020 she was cleared after the charge was dropped.

In 2023, she received a four-year ban after testing positive for a banned substance.