Olympic weightlifting silver medallist Mirabai Chanu received a warm welcome back home on her return to India from Japan’s Tokyo, the venue for Olympic Games 2020. Just after her historic win in the 49-kg category, 26-year-old Mirabai shared that she wanted to have pizza as she had been on a strict diet for months leading up to the global event.

On Tuesday, she could be seen having pizza with Union Minister of Law and Justice, Kiren Rijiju during an event that was organised to felicitate the Olympic star in Manipur. The photo was re-posted by Mirabai on her Instagram Stories.

Rijiju captioned the post, “Finally, Mirabai gets to eat pizza”.

A few photos from the function were also shared on Twitter by the former sports minister.

Mirabai enjoying pizza after a long time. (Source: Mirabai Chanu/Instagram Stories)

In a sweet note, Rijiju wrote on Twitter, “She was withholding her desire to eat pizza to maintain her weight in 49kg Weightlifting for the Olympics! Now, Mirabai Chanu has the freedom to fully enjoy pizza till she starts her training for the next championship.”

Most satisfying moment!
“I’ll come back with medal for India” Mirabai said this before leaving for Japan to represent India @ Olympics #Tokyo2020 #Cheer4India https://t.co/LrGOivcAkc pic.twitter.com/onwmI2A950

— Kiren Rijiju (@KirenRijiju) July 27, 2021

Mirabai recounted in an interview to NDTV that she didn’t eat anything for two days prior to the event to not gain any weight. “It’s very difficult because I always have to keep my weight ½ to 1 kg 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,” she said.

After she expressed her desire to eat pizza, pizza giant Domino’s promised lifetime free pizza to her as a “token of appreciation”.

Mirabai, who won after a gap of 21 years at Olympics, is only the second weightlifter from India after Karnam Malleswari to secure a win at the coveted event.

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