On the occasion of the BBC Women's Sports Award, Karnam Malleswari said that 55 poor children are taking training in her academy, from whom she is not taking any money. However, the Central Government has recently provided a support of five crore rupees for her academy. With this amount, she is constructing the infrastructure on the land purchased by herself. The academy is currently running on rented land. Malleshwari says that Meerabai Chanu has the power to repeat her performance in weightlifting. She hopes Chanu can win a medal at the Tokyo Olympics.
The country's first female Olympics medalist, Karnam Malleswari shared what were the difficulties she had faced to open a weightlifting academy in Yamunanagar. Malleswari said that she sought help from the government several times to provide land for the academy but she didn't got any help. Therefore, she opened the academy on rented land from the money she received at the Sydney Olympics.
Malleswari won the world title in the 54 kg division in 1994 and 1995 and placed third in 1993 and 1996. In 1994, she won silver at the World Championships in Istanbul and in 1995 she won the Asian Weightlifting Championships in Korea in the 54 kg category. She won the title in China that year with a record lift of 113 kg at the World Championships. Even before her Olympic win, Malleswari was a two-time weightlifting world champion with 29 international medals, which includes 11 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 is also the first and only Indian woman weightlifter to win an Olympic medal.
