Editor’s Desk  ·  Judo

Linthoi Chanambam: From the Violence-Hit Valley of Manipur to the Next Judo Queen of India

By Jennifer Rajkumari · Senior Sports Correspondent, PurePlay India  |  6 min read

“Every champion has a story. Linthoi Chanambam’s is not just about winning medals—it is about resilience, sacrifice, and proving that even the toughest circumstances cannot stop extraordinary talent.”

When Linthoi Chanambam stood atop the podium at the World Cadet Judo Championships in Sarajevo in 2022, she did more than win a gold medal. She rewrote Indian sporting history.

At just sixteen years of age, Linthoi became India’s first-ever World Cadet Judo Champion, announcing herself as one of the brightest young talents in world judo.

The following year brought one of the biggest setbacks of her young career — a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) that required surgery and kept her off the mat for nearly two years. Her return in 2025 once again demonstrated why champions are defined not by victories alone, but by how they respond to adversity.

Her bronze medal at the 2025 World Junior Championships in Lima, Peru — India’s first-ever medal at that level — confirmed that the golden girl from Manipur had come back stronger than ever.

From a Village Dojo to the World Stage

Born in Mayang Imphal, around 25 km from the Manipur state capital, Linthoi discovered judo at the age of eight, enrolling at the local Mayai Lambi Sports Academy in 2014. She was trained in her formative years by Angom Surjit Singh, Asem Surchandra Singh — who passed away during the second wave of COVID-19 — and Asem Rupachandra Singh.

While many children dreamt of ordinary careers, Linthoi dreamt of standing on the world’s biggest sporting stages. Her natural athleticism, fearless attitude and technical brilliance quickly caught the attention of coaches. Long before Sarajevo, she was already stacking up national and continental medals: gold at the Sub-Junior National Championships in three successive seasons (2016–17, 2017–18 and 2018–19), a gold at the 4th Khelo India Youth Games in 2021, and a bronze and a silver at the Asia-Oceania Cadet and Junior Championships in Lebanon that same year.

In 2017, her talent caught the eye of scouts from the JSW Sports initiative, and on the recommendation of her coach she earned support from the Sports Authority of India (SAI) and moved to the Inspire Institute of Sport (IIS) in Karnataka in September that year, at age eleven.

The move transformed her career. Training alongside India’s best athletes while receiving world-class coaching, sports science support, nutrition guidance and strength conditioning helped elevate her from a promising youngster into a genuine international contender. In July 2022, she won gold at the Asian Cadet and Junior Judo Championships in Bangkok — a springboard for what came next.

Then came Sarajevo. Linthoi’s gold-medal victory in the 57 kg final over Brazil’s Bianca Reis earned her the world title and gave Indian judo its first-ever World Cadet Championship gold medal.

For Indian judo, it was a watershed moment. For Linthoi, it was only the beginning.

“She will one day stand tall on the Olympic podium.”

— Asem Surjit Meitei, her head coach at the Mayai Lambi Sports Academy, after the Sarajevo win — while also appealing to authorities to give young talent from the region better infrastructure and training support

The Champion’s Toughest Opponent

Every elite athlete eventually faces an opponent that cannot be defeated with technique alone. For Linthoi, that opponent was injury.

In 2023, a serious ACL tear sent her into surgery and temporarily halted her remarkable rise. Months of rehabilitation replaced competition. Training mats gave way to physiotherapy rooms.

Many athletes struggle to regain confidence after such injuries. Linthoi returned with even greater determination.

In June 2025, she won gold at the Berlin Junior European Cup — the first Indian judoka to do so — proving that her rehabilitation had restored both her physical strength and competitive edge.

Soon afterwards came another historic achievement. Her bronze medal at the World Junior Championships in Lima, in the 63 kg category, made her the first Indian judoka to win a medal at the Junior World Championships. She reached the podium via the repechage route after an early loss to eventual champion So Morichika of Japan, defeating the Netherlands’ Joni Geilen in the bronze-medal contest.

It was not simply a comeback. It was a statement.

“We cried, we suffered, we failed, but you were always there with me.”

— Linthoi Chanambam, dedicating her World Junior Championship medal to coach Mamuka Kizilashvili

Beyond the Medals

While Linthoi now trains in one of India’s finest high-performance centres, her roots remain firmly planted in Manipur’s Imphal Valley, home to the Meitei community — which has produced an extraordinary number of India’s sporting icons despite persistent logistical and economic hardship.

For close to two decades, Manipur’s highways — the valley’s only road link to the rest of the country — have periodically been shut down by blockades, at times cutting off road transport for weeks or months on end. When that happens, essential goods have to be flown in or rerouted at far greater cost. Residents have reported prices spiking to as much as ₹100–150 for a kilogram of bananas, around ₹20 for a single egg, and ₹150–200 for a litre of milk — several times the usual cost.

For young athletes training outside elite institutions — many of whom come from modest, working-class backgrounds — that kind of price spike is not a minor inconvenience. It can mean the difference between a properly balanced athletic diet and going without.

Nutrition is not a luxury in elite sport. It is a necessity.

And yet, against this backdrop, the women of the Meitei community have built one of Indian sport’s most remarkable track records. Mirabai Chanu’s Olympic silver in weightlifting, Sarita Devi’s 2006 World Boxing Championship gold, Bembem Devi’s decade-plus captaincy of the India women’s football team, N. Kunjarani Devi’s seven World Championship medals in weightlifting, and Naorem Roshibina Devi’s Asian Games silver in wushu all trace back to the same small stretch of valley — and now Linthoi Chanambam’s judo medals join that list.

Their stories share a common thread: a resilience and courage forged as much by hardship as by talent.

Manipur continues to produce champions with remarkable consistency. Perhaps that says as much about the resilience of its people as it does about their sporting culture.

The Science Behind Her Success

Elite judo is no longer driven by strength alone. It demands precision, tactical awareness, explosive power and intelligent recovery.

Under Georgian coach Mamuka Kizilashvili — supported by fellow coaches Jiwan Sharma and Oinam Rasheshwori Chanu — Linthoi follows a carefully structured training programme at the Inspire Institute of Sport. Her routine combines strength and conditioning, technical judo sessions, tactical match simulations, randori (live sparring), recovery and rehabilitation, nutrition planning, and sports psychology.

Every aspect of her preparation is monitored by sports scientists. Her calm temperament, tactical intelligence and explosive execution have become defining characteristics of her fighting style.

Trailblazers of Indian Combat Sports

Linthoi now joins a remarkable lineage of Indian combat-sport champions — several of them, like her, from Manipur.

Eyes on Los Angeles 2028

At nineteen, Linthoi’s greatest achievements may still lie ahead. Her immediate objective is to continue climbing the International Judo Federation rankings and qualify for the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 2028. She has spoken of Kosovo’s Majlinda Kelmendi — Olympic judo champion and one of the sport’s defining figures — as an idol, and has said she wants to become the first Indian woman to win an Olympic gold medal.

If her progress continues, India could soon have its strongest-ever Olympic medal prospect in judo. But beyond medals, Linthoi represents something even more powerful. She represents possibility.

She reminds thousands of young athletes across India that excellence is not determined by geography, privilege or circumstance. It is built through discipline, perseverance and belief.