Biography

Bindyarani Devi is an Indian weightlifter, who competes in the 55kg and 53kg weight classes. She won a silver medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games (Birmingham) in the womens 55kg category with an overall lift of 202kg, with 86kg snatch and 116kg clean and jerk.Inclined toward sports since childhood, she started her journey as a Taekwondo player. She trained and competed in Taekwondo competitions from 2008 to 2012.As her short height was ideal for weightlifting, she gave up Taekwondo and started weightlifting in 2013.Following the same trajectory as her fellow Manipuri Mirabai Chanu, an Indian weightlifter who won the silver medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in the Womens 49 kg category, Bindyarani began her journey as a weightlifter training at the SAI North Eastern Regional Centre in Imphal. After three long years, Devi was selected for training at the National Centres of Excellence (NCOE) Imphal.Mirabai Chanu grew up idolising Kunjarani Devi, a pioneer of Indian womens weightlifting and one of the first woman lifters from India to win medals at the international level. In an interview, she said, Though we come from the same state and from nearby towns around Imphal, I have no relationship with Mirabai Chanu. I did not follow her into weightlifting. I was inspired by Kunjarani Devi..In 2019, when Bindyarani Devi was first selected for the national camp in NIS Patiala, she arrived at the camp without a pair of weightlifting shoes for her workout sessions. At that time, Olympic silver medalist Mirabai Chanu gifted her training shoes and aided her in the camp.