Karnam Malleswari created history at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 by becoming the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal when she clinched a bronze in weightlifting.

On Saturday in Tokyo, 21 years later, Mirabai Chanu improved on that feat by bagging a silver, a news that brought immense joy to Malleswari.

“After a long gap there has been some good news in the weightlifting family of the country,” Malleswari told The Telegraph. “It is a wonderful feeling, the way Mirabai performed today and did the country proud. I extend my hearty congratulations to Mirabai, her team and her family members, all of whom had a role to play in her success.”

Asked why the country had to wait for two decades for a weightlifting medal since her bronze, Malleswari said: “See, most of the Indian athletes who have reached the world level, the Olympic level, have come out of the interior areas of the country, villages and small towns. And so long as we don’t reach those backward areas to provide coaching and develop infrastructure, the situation will not change.

“And after another 20 years you will be asking Mirabai the same question that you are asking me now.

“There is no dearth of talent in our country but the onus of nurturing that talent, of providing them with the requisite training lies on us, doesn’t it? There may be a kid who is a terrific sprinter in a backward region. But there isn’t an athletic track anywhere close.

“A youngster may have the potential to be a great weightlifter but there are no gyms around. How then do you expect an athlete to develop his talent? So, as long as we do not make coaching and infrastructural facilities available at the grassroots level, from one medal to the next this yawning gap will remain.”

Malleswari strongly disagreed when asked if fewer women take to weightlifting because it is a more ‘manly’ pursuit. “It is not about the mindset. I took to lifting 30 years back. It is, I reiterate, more due to the lack of basic facilities.

“Yes, the government has brought good schemes for those girls and boys who have reached a certain level. But there has been hardly any development at the grassroots level. And if the situation does not change, one medal in 15-20 years is all we will get.

“And the credit for that medal will almost totally go to the athlete himself/herself, to their own talents and perseverance — a reason why Mirabai deserves a lot more credit for having overcome her injury and groomed herself to the podium,” she concluded.