Weightlifter Mirabai Chanu has done the country proud by winning a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics. The road to this victory hasn't been an easy one, as the athlete revealed in an exclusive interview with NDTV. Apart from extensive training and rigorous practices, Chanu has also sacrificed a lot in terms of her diet. Giving up her favourite junk food - pizza - was no easy feat. In fact, Mirabai Chanu said that she could not eat anything 2 days prior to her final competition. Pizza was the first thing she ate for dinner that day.
"The moment the competition got over, I had pizza for dinner. Two days prior to the final, I had not eaten anything due to my weight. So pizza was the first thing I ate," she told NDTV. She was also treated to pizza in her reception function with several Union ministers.
(Also Read: Free Pizzas And Special Cartoon To Honour Mirabai Chanu's Olympic Win)
Talking about maintaining weight for the 49kg category, Mirabai Chanu said, "It's very difficult because I always have to keep my weight 1/2 or 1kg above the decided weight. We need to strictly control our diet to maintain weight for this category. Therefore I can't eat junk food and my diet is limited to peas, meat etc." Interestingly, Mirabai had also turned completely vegetarian recently.
Seeing that Mirabai Chanu was craving pizza, fast food giant Domino's had offered to provide her free pizza for life. Sharing her excitement about the lifetime free pizza offer, the weightlifter said it has been her favourite dish since a long time. "I used to like pizza a lot. Whenever I felt like eating junk food, I would order pizza and eat it. My roommates in Patiala are also very excited about the offer!"
For the full video of her interview, head to the top of the article.