Rajkumari Lanchenbi Chanu is a 15-year-old wushu athlete from Manipur who made Indian sporting history on 3 November 2026, winning bronze in the women’s changquan combined event at the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games. The medal was India’s first ever in wushu at the Youth Olympics — and it came in the first edition in which wushu featured as a medal sport at the Games. At the Dakar Expo Centre, she scored a combined 18.039 points across her two routines to climb onto the podium from fourth place.
Chanu was the only Indian wushu athlete to qualify for Dakar 2026, and her medal was India’s third of the Games. Her rise has been swift: she began practising wushu only in 2020, yet within six years she had collected a national sub-junior title, a World Junior Championships bronze and now a Youth Olympic medal.
| Full Name | Rajkumari Lanchenbi Chanu |
| Date of Birth | 15 April 2011 |
| Age | 15 years (as of November 2026) |
| Height | Not publicly disclosed |
| Birthplace | Naorem Leikai, Imphal West, Manipur, India |
| Occupation | Wushu athlete (Taolu) |
| Known For | Bronze, women’s changquan combined, Dakar 2026 — India’s first Youth Olympics wushu medal |
| Net Worth 2026 | Not publicly disclosed |
Early Life
Rajkumari Lanchenbi Chanu was born on 15 April 2011, according to the official athlete profile published by the International Wushu Federation (IWUF) for the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games. She hails from Naorem Leikai in the Imphal West district of Manipur, a state in north-east India with a deep tradition in combat sports and martial arts.
Manipur has produced a long line of Indian champions in boxing, weightlifting, judo and wushu, and Chanu grew up inside that sporting culture. According to her IWUF profile, she began her wushu journey in 2020 in Manipur, at the age of nine. Wushu taolu, the performance discipline she competes in, rewards precision, balance, flexibility and explosive movement.
Chanu moved through the junior ranks quickly. In 2025 she won gold at the 25th Sub-Junior National Wushu Championships in Tamil Nadu, a result reported in her profile coverage after the Dakar medal. That national title confirmed her as one of India’s most promising young taolu athletes ahead of her breakthrough year in 2026.
Career
Chanu’s first major international result came at the 2026 World Junior Wushu Championships in Tianjin, China, where she won bronze in the girls’ youth changquan event. She went on to become the only Indian wushu athlete to qualify for Dakar 2026, where wushu was appearing as a medal sport at the Youth Olympics for the first time.
The women’s changquan combined event was contested over two routines: gunshu, the staff routine, and changquan, the bare-handed long-fist routine. Chanu qualified for the final with a combined preliminary score of 17.982, as reported by TezzBuzz. In the final on 3 November 2026, she scored 8.723 in gunshu, leaving her fourth after the opening routine.
Her second routine changed everything. Chanu delivered a changquan performance worth 9.316 points — the second-best score in that routine among the eight finalists — to lift her combined total to 18.039 and into third place. Egypt’s Sondos Sonbol won gold with 18.660, while Venezuela’s Valeria Frannerys Dudamel Alvarado took silver with 18.199. Chanu finished ahead of Georgia’s Gvantsa Karchava, fourth with 17.700.
The bronze was India’s third medal at the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games, taking the country’s tally to one silver and two bronze. The Wushu Association of India credited her determination and her coaches and support staff, and Manipur’s Youth Affairs and Sports Minister Govindas Konthoujam publicly congratulated her, as reported by the Ukhrul Times. For Indian wushu, the medal was a landmark: a sport that had waited years for Olympic recognition finally had an Indian on a Youth Olympic podium. Like fellow Dakar 2026 medallist Dhinidhi Desinghu, Chanu announced herself as a teenager with a long career ahead of her.
At 15, Chanu’s senior career is still to begin. The natural next steps are the senior Asian and World Wushu Championships, where Indian athletes have historically found medals hard to come by. If she continues on her current trajectory, she will be aiming to follow established Indian stars such as PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen, who turned teenage promise into sustained senior success.
Personal Life
Chanu is 15, and as a minor her private life is rightly kept out of the spotlight. Public reporting about her has focused almost entirely on her sport: her home town of Naorem Leikai, her start in wushu in 2020, and her results at national and international level. No reputable outlet has published detail about her family or her life away from training.
What is publicly known is that she represents Manipur, a state whose athletes have carried Indian hopes in combat sports for decades, and that her success was celebrated widely at home. For now, the public record is that of a young athlete at the very start of her journey, and the personal details beyond that remain private, as they should.
Lanchenbi Chanu Net Worth 2026
There is no publicly reported net worth figure for Lanchenbi Chanu. She is a 15-year-old amateur athlete whose income, if any, would come from government sports awards or federation support — none publicly disclosed as of 7 November 2026.
Youth Olympic medallists in India are sometimes felicitated with cash awards by their state governments or sports bodies, but no such award for Chanu had been announced in the days after her bronze. She has no reported endorsement deals, and wushu offers limited commercial income even for senior athletes. Any website publishing a specific net worth figure for her would be guessing.
Frequently Asked Questions
How old is Lanchenbi Chanu?
Lanchenbi Chanu is 15 years old. She was born on 15 April 2011, according to the official athlete profile published by the International Wushu Federation for Dakar 2026, and won her Youth Olympic bronze at 15.
What did Lanchenbi Chanu win at the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympics?
She won bronze in the women’s changquan combined wushu event on 3 November 2026, scoring 8.723 in gunshu and 9.316 in changquan for a combined 18.039. She finished behind Egypt’s Sondos Sonbol (gold, 18.660) and Venezuela’s Valeria Frannerys Dudamel Alvarado (silver, 18.199) — India’s first-ever wushu medal at the Youth Olympics.
Where is Lanchenbi Chanu from?
She is from Naorem Leikai in the Imphal West district of Manipur, India, where she began practising wushu in 2020.
What is Lanchenbi Chanu’s height?
Her height has not been publicly disclosed. No reliable news outlet, sports profile or federation listing has published a height figure for her as of 7 November 2026.
What is Lanchenbi Chanu’s net worth in 2026?
Her net worth is not publicly known. She is a 15-year-old amateur athlete with no reported endorsements or publicly disclosed earnings.
What is changquan in wushu?
Changquan, meaning “long fist”, is a bare-handed taolu routine in competitive wushu, built on fast, expansive movements, kicks and acrobatic techniques. In the changquan combined event, athletes also perform gunshu, a routine using a long staff, and the two scores are added together — how Chanu’s 8.723 and 9.316 produced her bronze-medal total of 18.039.
