Karnam Malleswari Biography: Age, Height, Personal Life, Professional Life, Achievements & Net Worth -

Karnam Malleswari Biography: Karnam Malleswari is a retired Indian Weightlifter who was the first Indian woman athlete to win a medal at the Olympics. She won the Bronze medal in 2000 Sydney Olympics. She has been felicitated with several prestigious awards such as Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna and Padma Shri Award in 1999.

EARLY LIFE:

Mother: Shyamla Malleswari
Father: Manohar (Constable in the Railway Protection Force)
Sisters- Narsamma Malleswari, Madhavi, Krishna Kumari
Brother- Ravindra Kumar.

Karnam was born in a small village of Voosavanipeta in Andhra Pradesh, India. She was born on June 1 in 1975 in a family where all her four sisters were well trained in Weightlifting. Her mother Shyamla Malleswari raised all her five daughters and pushed four of them to take up weightlifting. Even Karnam was interested in going for weightlifting after seeing her uncle’s son practising the same. She left her school at the age of just 12 as she spent her time in training.

Her mother supported all her daughters in her way by tying household weights in bamboo sticks for them to lift and practice. As Karnam had dropped out of school, she started spending more time in the gym. As her name suggests, Karnam means “Pride” and she worked really hard in her training sessions to make her parents proud.

PERSONAL LIFE:

With her son Sharad

Husband- Rajesh Tyagi (Professional Weightlifter)
Son- Sharad Chander Tyagi

Karnam got married to a fellow professional weight lifter Rajesh Tyagi in 1997 and four years later she gave birth to a son. Karnam who retired from the sport has an academy on her name where she trains the youngsters in weightlifting. Her husband is employed at Food Corporation of India as Chief General Manager. She lives in Yamuna Nagar, Haryana along with her whole family. Her son Sharad Chander Tyagi is a budding shooter who is following the footsteps of his parents to represent India one day. He qualified for the National Shooting Championships in 10m rifle shooting held in 2015.

PROFESSIONAL LIFE:

Coach- Neelam Shetty Appanna & Leonid Taranenko

Career Highlights- Bronze Medal at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. (First Indian woman)
Karnam received immense support from her parents to pursue weight lifting. Since she dropped out of school at an early age, she did not fail to impress everyone with her incredible talent and performances. Seeing her utmost dedication for weightlifting, her parents got her admission for the weight-training regimen at the Ammi Naidu gym in the district headquarters town of Srikakulam. Karnam started participating in Inter-state and national level of weightlifting. And she finally got recognition in her career at the age of just 16 when she won a Silver medal at the 1991 Senior Nationals held in Ambala. She soon grabbed the eyes of many people including the Sports Authority of India. She got coaching from Neelam Shetty Appanna who trained her in the initial days of her career. She soon moved to Delhi with her sister Krishna and started training in Sports Authority of India. Then in 1990, Malleshwari joined the national camp and four years later, she was a world championship winner in the 54-kg class as she trained for four years in the National camp. She was coached by Leonid Taranenko, renowned weight lifter from Belarus who holds many records. Karnam had tasted massive success at many weight lifting championships where she won so many medals and set so many records. Karnam Malleswari’s most dominating performance has been three gold medals that she had won at the Asian Championships held in South Korea in 1995. Karnam Malleswari was a go to name for India at the Olympics as she qualified for the Sydney Olympics in 2000.

Karnam entered the Sydney Olympics with 29 International medals, of which 11 were gold medals. At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Malleswari lifted 110 kg in the “snatch” and 130 kg in the “clean and jerk” categories for a total of 240 kg. She won the bronze medal and became the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal. She made a historic record of becoming the first and only Indian woman weightlifter to ever win an Olympic medal.

After her son’s birth in 2001, Karnam became inactive in sports as she stopped participating in weightlifting events. She decided to participate in the 2002 Commonwealth Games but she had to opt-out in the last minute due to her father’s death. Her next target being the 2004 Athens Olympics was followed by a disastrous run. Subsequently, she announced her retirement from the sport. Known as the “Iron Lady” of Andhra Pradesh, Karnam had a dream of seeing more girls to represent India, Karnam started her Academy in order to train the young and aspiring weightlifters.

PERSONAL INFORMATION

Date of Birth- 1 June 1975
Age (as of 2019)- 44 years old
Gender- Female
Birthplace- Amadalavalasa, Andhra Pradesh
Complexion- Brown
Zodiac sign- Gemini
Nationality- Indian
Hometown- Amadalavalasa, Andhra Pradesh
Nickname- Iron Lady
School- ZPPG High School, Amadalavalasa
College- Not known
Occupation- Weightlifting
Event- Weightlifting 54 Kg category
Net worth- Not Known
Qualification- No
Religion- Hinduism
Ethnicity- Not Known
Sexual Orientation- Straight
Hobbies- Spending time with Family.
Tattoo – NO
Smoking- NO

PHYSICAL MEASUREMENTS:

Height- 163 cm (5 ft 4 in)
Weight (approx.) – 132 lbs (60 kg)
Eye Color- Black
Hair Color- Black

ACHIEVEMENTS:

Silver Medal- Senior Nationals Championships in 1991. (52 Kg category)
Bronze Medal- World Championships, Melbourne in 1993. (54 Kg category)
Two Gold Medals & one Silver Medal- World Championships, Istanbul in 1994. (54 Kg category)
Silver Medal- Asian Games, Hiroshima in 1994.
Gold Medal- World Championships, Guangzhou in 1995. (54 Kg category)
Three gold medals- Asian Championships, South Korea in 1995. (54 Kg category)
Gold medal- World Championsips, China in 1995.
Gold medal- Asian Championships, Japan in 1996.
Silver medal- Asian Games in 1997. (54 Kg clean and Jerk)
Silver medal- Asian Games in 1998. (63 Kg clean and Jerk)
Received Arjuna Award in the year 1994.
Received Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in 1999.
Bronze Medal- Sydney Olympics in the year 2000.
Received Padma Shri in 1999 from the Government of India.
Received Lifetime Achievement Award from #Delhi Sports Journalists Association (DSJA) for contribution to sports as India’s 1st woman medallist in Olympic Games.