When weightlifter Punam Yadav clinched a gold medal for India at the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast last week, her family back in the farming community of Dandupur, six kilometres outside Benaras, was ecstatic.
Ms Yadav is the youngest of five daughters and two sons who grew up on working on her father’s farm, tilling the soil and feeding cattle in her childhood.
It was Indian weightlifter Karnam Malleswari’s individual Olympic medal (bronze) at the 2000 Sydney Olympics that inspired her to take up weightlifting.
Ms Yadav’s father told News18: “When Karnman Malleswari won Bronze for the country; I wanted my daughter to win a medal for the country too. She started training in 2011. She was so good; she would manage to find time for household chores and farm work in addition to her training.”
When Ms Yadav finally got a chance to represent India at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, her parents lacked the funds to support her dreams.
Mr Yadav sold off the family's buffalo and borrowed money from his friends and family to fund his daughter's trip.
The sacrifice paid off.
She clinched bronze in the 63 kg category at the 2014 Glasgow Games and moved to a higher weight category for the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships, winning gold in 2015 and bagging silver in 2017.
On Friday, Ms Yadav added another gold to India's haul after lifting 122 kg in the Clean and Jerk category in the Gold Coast.
