Indian weightlifter Jyoshna Sabar won a bronze medal at the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) World Youth Championships on its opening day in Durres, Albania. Competing in the women’s 40 kg event, 14-year-old Jyoshna had a combined lift of 115 kg (53 kg in snatch and 62 kg in knee and jerk).

The IWF runs three flagship World Championships for senior, junior and youth weightlifters. Athletes between 13 and 17 are eligible to participate in youth competitions.

Jyoshna hails from the Pekata village in the Rayagada block of Odisha’s Gajapati district. A first-generation Adivasi student and daughter of farmer couple Kirtan Sabar and Gachameri Sabar, Jyoshna joined the Gram Vikas High School of Kankia village in 2016.

Filled with emotion, Jyoshna said, “I could not believe I would one day make my country and parents proud. I became emotional when I won the medal in Albania because I remembered my parents back home, my school teachers, and the headmaster.”

In 2018, she joined the Tenvic High Performance Weightlifting Centre in Bhubaneswar and practised hard, dedicating her time to the sport. Presently, she is pursuing her studies at the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) in Bhubaneshwar.

From the start, Jyoshna aspired to be a professional sportsperson, “I was very young to take up weightlifting and not confident. But Debendra Sir (the Headmaster) noticed that I was good at sports and would excel at it. He encouraged me to focus more on sports. Arati teacher, who taught me Odia, Ajaya and Lingaraj sir, my science and mathematics teacher were also supportive. Without the support I got at school, it would have been difficult for someone like me from the small village of Pekata to come this far.”

Jyoshna has won many medals and bears several accolades to her name. By winning bronze for the country at the IWF World Youth Championships this year, Jyoshna Sabar has made both her country and her parents proud.

Her friend Sukanti Bhuyan, a Class 10 student in Gram Vikas High School, says Jyoshna was focused on winning, “She was always a quiet child in school but determined to make a name for her village and country one day. I am excited. All of us in Pekata are excited to meet her when she visits here.”

Jyoshna has been consistently winning medals at the State level Weightlifting Championships. She is a State level record holder in both snatch (47 kg) and clean and jerk (57 kg) categories. She also won a silver medal in the 40 kg category—Jyoshna had a combined lift of 108 kg—at the first Khelo India Youth Games held in Himachal Pradesh in June 2022.

Jyoshna followed this up with a gold medal at the National Weightlifting Championship held in Nagercoil, Tamil Nadu, in December 2022. She was also awarded the ‘Best Lifter’ in the Youth Women category at the Championship.

More recently, in February this year, at the Khelo India Youth Games held in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, Jyoshna bagged the silver medal by lifting a total of 118 kg (53 kg in snatch and 65 kg in clean & jerk)