Vikas Thakurਵਿਕਾਸ ਠਾਕੁਰ

Vikas Thakur (born 14 November 1993) is an Indian weightlifter who has won a medal at three Commonwealth Games in a row. A silver in Glasgow in 2014, a bronze on the Gold Coast in 2018 and another silver in Birmingham in 2022 make him one of India's most consistent weightlifters of his generation, and the Arjuna Award he received in 2022 put the national seal on a career built slowly, in three different weight classes, over nearly a decade.

Early life and training in Ludhiana

Vikas was born in Patnaon village, in Hamirpur district of Himachal Pradesh. His father, Brijlal Thakur, worked in the Indian Railways and had played volleyball, so sport was part of the house from the start. Vikas grew up in Ludhiana in Punjab, and it was Ludhiana that made him a weightlifter. He went to school at N M Jain Model Senior Secondary School in the city.

He was nine years old when he first started lifting, hoisting iron bars at home with his father. He tried athletics and boxing first, but weightlifting was the sport that held him. His parents wanted sport to keep him busy and out of bad company, and he would finish his homework early so he could get to training. His first coach was Parvesh Chander Sharma, himself a Commonwealth Games medallist from 1990, at the Ludhiana Club. From there Vikas moved into professional training at the Ludhiana Weightlifting Center, and later worked at the Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports in Patiala, the weightlifting gym at Rakh Bagh in Ludhiana, and the Ludhiana Weightlifting Club at Guru Nanak Stadium. His coaches through the years included B. S. Medhwan and Vijay Sharma, the national coach. He has said in interviews that Indian coaches are talented and can produce many more champions, but athletes lag behind for want of proper facilities and equipment.

Breakthrough at Glasgow 2014

Vikas came up through the junior ranks, competing at the Asian Junior Championships and the Commonwealth Junior Championships in 2011 and 2012, and at the IWF Junior World Championships in 2013. His senior international debut came at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014, where he won silver in the men's 85 kg class. It was a debut with a medal, and it set the pattern for the rest of his career.

The same year he competed at the Asian Games in Incheon, and in 2015 he won gold at the Commonwealth Championships in Pune, again in the 85 kg class. He had already taken silver at the Commonwealth Championships in Penang in 2013. By his early twenties he was a regular in the Indian team at Asian Championships and World Championships, and a nine-time national medallist, with eight gold medals and one silver at the national level.

How many Commonwealth Games medals has Vikas Thakur won?

Three, one at each of three Games in a row, in three different weight classes. The silver at Glasgow 2014 came in the 85 kg class. Four years later, at the Gold Coast in 2018, he took bronze in the 94 kg class. And at Birmingham in 2022 he won silver in the 96 kg class, lifting a total of 346 kg: 155 kg in the snatch and 191 kg in the clean and jerk.

The Birmingham final showed how he wins. He opened the snatch with 149 kg, then 153 kg, then 155 kg, and was tied for third at the midway mark. In the clean and jerk he lifted 187 kg, then 191 kg, which moved him into the top three. He tried 198 kg in his final attempt, hoping to better his personal best, and missed, but the silver was already his. Don Opeloge of Samoa took gold with a Games record of 381 kg, and Taniela Rainibogi of Fiji took bronze with 343 kg.

Around the Games medals sits a strong Commonwealth Championships record: gold in Pune in 2015, silver in Penang in 2013 and in Samoa in 2019, and bronze on the Gold Coast in 2017 and in Tashkent in 2021. Five medals at that level, to go with his three at the Games. His personal bests are a snatch of 159 kg and a clean and jerk of 200 kg, and he holds Indian records in his class.

The Indian Air Force years and the Arjuna Award

In 2018 Vikas was appointed a Junior Warrant Officer in the Indian Air Force, which gave his sporting career a steady base. He had been named the best weightlifter in India in the under-19 category back in 2010, and the Air Force years brought the biggest honours of his career.

The peak came in 2022. After the Birmingham silver, he received the Arjuna Award for 2022 from President Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi, along with a cash prize of 15 lakh rupees, a certificate and a bronze statue of Arjuna. The Arjuna Award is one of India's highest sporting honours, given for outstanding achievement in national sports. For a lifter from a small village in Hamirpur who had trained in Ludhiana's clubs, it was the fullest recognition of a career spent winning medals for India without ever being the loudest name in the team.

Legacy and what comes next

Vikas Thakur's record is built on steadiness rather than a single famous lift. Medals at three Commonwealth Games across eight years, in three weight classes, with five more medals at the Commonwealth Championships and nine national medals, make him one of the most reliable performers Indian weightlifting has produced. He competed at the Asian Games in 2014 and 2018, and at World Championships in 2014, 2017 and 2021, keeping himself in the Indian team year after year.

He has also spoken plainly about the conditions Indian lifters train in, saying government funds do not always reach players and that more equipment and better facilities would let Indian coaches produce many more champions. His own path, from iron bars lifted at home at the age of nine to the podium at three Commonwealth Games, is the example he points to: talent that was spotted early, coached well in Ludhiana, and given the time to grow into medals.