Harjinder Kaur

Some Lesser Known Facts About Harjinder Kaur

• Harjinder Kaur is an Indian weightlifter who clinched a bronze model in weightlifting in the 71 kg category at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

• She was fascinated by sports since childhood. In her school days, she used to play Kabaddi, a contact team sport.

• While studying in college, at the suggestion of her coach Surinder Singh, she played Kabaddi for her college team. Later, she went to Punjabi University in Patiala, where her skills were noticed by Paramjeet Sharma, a  weightlifting champion of the 1990 Commonwealth Games.
• Paramjeet Sharma advised her to participate in tug-of-war games. She participated in tug-of-war games and performed well in the game after which her coach observed her strength and further insisted her to try weightlifting. In an interview, Paramjeet Sharma talked about this and said,

• I was surprised at how much power she had as a teenager when we put her into the tug of war teams. She undertook some national tours. It took some time to convince her to shift to weightlifting. There were times when she would return to her village and did not show too much of interest in weightlifting. But she would always return. Today I can say it was the right decision to make her a weightlifter.”

• In 2016, she started practising weightlifting with the assistance of coach Pramjeet Sharma.

  

• Subsequently, Harjinder Kaur clinched medals in various weightlifting competitions like a gold medal at the 3rd Women Inter-State Senior National Weightlifting Competition, a silver medal 35th Women Senior National Weightlifting Championship, and a gold medal at the Senior Nationals Competitions in Orissa.

  

• Harjinder Kaur’s family condition was not good enough to provide her requirements as per the game, so her coach Paramjeet Sharma assisted her during her training period. In an interview, she talked about this and said,
  

  When I started off in 2016, I did not get any financial support from my family, but I have been morally supported by my family. My coach, Paramjeet Sharma, helped me out a lot in those days and he had the faith that I would be bringing a medal today, and his faith, I think, won me my medal.”

• In an interview, Harjinder Kaur said that Mirabai Chanu was her favourite weightlifter. She further shared that she wanted to take a selfie with Mirabai Chanu after winning a medal at Commonwealth Games 2022.

• In 2022, after Harjinder won a medal at CWG 2022, Punjab’s Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann congratulated her and announced a cash prize of Rs 40 lakh for her. Harjinder was also congratulated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi through a Twitter post. ^[2]Deccan Herald

  

• In an interview, Harjinder talked about the Commonwealth Games 2022 and said that although she won a medal, she was not satisfied with her performance. Further, she added that she wanted to focus on the next Asian Championship games. She quoted,
  

  I was confident that I will get a medal. Though I am not happy with my performance but I am happy that I won a medal. Next, I will focus on Asian Championship ^[3]Republic World