Jhilli Dalabehera: Making dreams a reality

When the competition was done and dusted, Jhilli Dalabehera was in a somber mood. She looked up at the scoreboard and it displayed her final tally as 167Kgs.

The 22-year old from Nayagarh in Odisha had assured herself of a silver medal at the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships, which are being held alongside the World Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan earlier this month.

The event has been combined as the Commonwealth Championships, meant to be held in October in Singapore, had been called off due to the coronavirus pandemic. So at these World Championships, lifters from Commonwealth countries have another set of podium places on offer, with gold medallists earning a direct berth for next year’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

Jhilli, who won the gold medal at the Commonwealth Championships in 2019 in the 45kg category, missed repeating that feat by a mere 1kg this time around in the 49kg category, falling short of Stella Peter Kingsley of Nigeria who lifted 168kgs.

Read: Jeremy Lalrinnunga, Achinta Sheuli qualify for 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games

However, it wasn’t that outcome that upset Jhilli. A closer examination of the scoreboard revealed that Takahashi Ibuki of Japan won the bronze medal at the World Championships with a total lift of 172kgs, a mark Jhilli had been surpassing comfortably in recent weeks.

In fact, at the selection trials in Patiala in October, she lifted her personal best mark of 176kgs that would have assured that she would become only the second Indian weightlifter since 2000 to win a World Championship medal, to add to Mirabai Chanu’s Gold in 2017.

“I had a bad start to the competition, when I failed in my first two snatch attempts of 73 Kgs,” remembers Jhilli. “I eventually managed to register a lift in my final attempt. This led to a reduced score in the Snatch where I could have lifted 78 kgs or perhaps even more. Failing on the first lift is a big setback as it crushes your confidence and leaves you blank during the competition. It is important for weightlifters to learn to cope up with such adversity and bounce back strong.”

Jhilli Dalabehera - overcoming challenges like a pro

Bouncing back from adversity and overcoming challenges are second nature to Jhilli. When she first displayed a talent for sport and physical activity, her father, Biswanath Dalabehera, a farmer, wasn’t too encouraging. The family lacked the means to support Jhilli’s pursuit of a sport but Jhilli was determined.

By the time she was 13, with her mother and elder sisters backing her, Jhilli moved to Bhubaneswar to begin her journey at the sports hostel at the Kalinga stadium, where she remembers her first coach motivating her by saying, “Jhilli, you too will fly in an airplane one day.”

In 2016, Jhilli made her first splash on the circuit when she became Youth National champion. A call-up to the national camp followed and soon Jhilli found herself fulfilling her coach’s prophecy and boarded a flight to Malaysia for her first international competition.

Timely interventions backs Jhilli to the hilt

For Jhilli Dalabehera, timely interventions were instrumental in her growth. (PC: RFYS)

Several podium place finishes followed – most notably, silver at the Junior Commonwealth championships in 2016, bronze at the Junior nationals in 2016, gold at the Commonwealth Junior championships in 2017, bronze at the Junior World championships in 2018 and silver at the Asian Junior championships in the same year.

Jhilli also confirmed her status as the best junior lifter in the country in the 48kg category in 2018 by winning the Junior National championships in 2018. In 2019, Jhilli’s career received a further fillip as she was included in the newly introduced elite athlete scholarship scheme of Reliance Foundation Youth Sports (RFYS).

Along with financial support towards travel, Jhilli was assured of specialized care from the cutting edge sports science and medicine expertise team at the Sir H.N. Reliance Foundation Hospital and Research Center in Mumbai.

Jhilli could now access a dedicated physiotherapist, strength and conditioning coaches and specialist input in crucial areas such as rehabilitation, nutrition, psychology, data management and analysis.

For an athlete of promise on the verge of taking a big leap in the hyper competitive world of international sport, these interventions came at just the right time.

Maithili Bhuptani, the Lead Sport and Exercise Psychologist at the Sir H.N. Reliance Foundation Hospital and Research Center, was among the first specialists to engage with Jhilli.

Her initial observations pointed to an athlete beset with anxieties, prone to losing concentration and unable to handle pressure and adversity too well.

Bhuptani prepared a detailed, individualized plan for Jhilli, setting well defined goals, recalling previous success through visualization techniques and increasing her self-awareness of her own emotions.

“During our psychology intake session, I asked her what her long-term goal was. To which she replied: ‘A medal in World Championships, and then the Olympics’,” remembers Bhuptani.

“She is an open individual who learns from instructions, accepts constructive criticisms without taking it personally and becoming upset. Jhilli is hardworking and disciplined, her main challenges are to remain positive and enthusiastic even when things are going badly.”

No looking back

Access to such interventions as part of the RFYS scholarship coincided with an upswing in Jhilli's career graph. In 2019, she pocketed the gold medal at the Commonwealth Senior Championships in Samao and the South Asian Games in Nepal, along with a silver at the Asian Championships.

In 2020, Jhilli won the gold medal at the Senior National Championships in Kolkata and once the lockdown eased, she climbed to the top of the podium at the Asian Championships in Tashkent in 2021 and won bronze at the National Championships in Patiala.

While Jhilli was still tasting success, her coaches felt her performances were stagnating in the 45kgs category as she was finding it increasingly hard to maintain weight and improve her performances.

A decision was taken to move her up to the 49kg category, where Mirabai Chanu won a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics earlier this year. In Mirabai’s absence, Jhilli showed herself to be a worthy successor, lifting 176kgs at the selection trial to secure her spot for the World Championships.

Preparing for higher challenges, like a pro

Moving up in the weight category presents multiple challenges to Jhilli's support team. Nutritionist Mihira Khopkar from the Sir H.N. Reliance Foundation Hospital and Research Center has been focused on retaining muscle mass to build further on her strength and power.

Drastic changes in weight can lead to fatigue and impact performance, so the approach is designed to ensure there is no compromise on energy.

Khopkar has found Jhilli to be an “extremely dedicated athlete” who sticks to a regimen once she sees the benefits. Physiotherapist Hariyali Barot has been another staunch ally in Jhilli’s journey, identifying areas that need special attention such as shoulder and hip mobility, upper body strength, development of major muscles and core muscle strengthening.

“One month before the Asian championship in Tashkent earlier this year, Jhilli had severe pain on the left side of her thigh,” recalls Barot. “This pain was mechanical because of the hip rotator strength difference. She had to reduce her training load mainly in squats while I worked on her left inner thigh and glut end range strength with deep tissue release and stretches."

"We also found that she had a limb length difference of 1.5cm on the left, so we suggested she use two insoles on the left and two socks on the right to for a better grip on the shoes. This management helped her recover from pain completely a week before the competition and she won the Gold medal. That was extremely rewarding.”

Inspired by Mirabai’s feats, whom she first encountered at the 2018 Senior National championships, Jhilli is now focused on the next stage of her career.

With the RFYS support program as a steadfast support in her corner, she has identified qualifying for the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China in September 2022 as her immediate target.

However, the long term goal is a place on the most treasured podium of all – The Olympics. The 13-year who once left home with dreams of one day flying in an airplane, has come a long way indeed.