"I will go to the villages and try to enthuse village children about weightlifting," Ms Malleswari said in Faridabad, disclosing her plans to take her own chosen sport among India's poor people.

While she would invest a part of the many cash rewards announced by government and private sources since her victory, totalling over Rs 7 million, in the project, Ms Malleswari said she would also try to tap the corporate world for finance.

Ms Malleswari said the government's efforts at spreading a sports culture around the country were inadequate. "It is true that the government puts in money in sports, but it doesn't reach where it should-in the villages," Ms Malleswari, who brought India its only medal at the Olympics, said. "The only way sports can spread in India is by spreading the sporting money around, by holding camps in villages."

Having returned just Tuesday night from the Sydney Olympics where she won India's only medal, Ms Malleswari was tired but bright when she met reporters, relatives, neighbours and sports enthusiasts who had crowded her modest ground-floor apartment in this satellite industrial town bordering the Indian Capital.

Her bronze medal in a round synthetic box was placed carelessly next to the television set in a living room turned upside down by the stream of visitors. Ms Malleswari met visitors dressed in a formal salwar-kameez and wearing bangles, necklaces and large earrings.

On her surprise announcement immediately after victory that she was retiring, which she later retracted, Ms Malleswari said, "I was very tired after my performance. I had also been very upset because some magazines had written nasty things about me." Later, however, she changed her mind as she received an overwhelming response from her fans to continue in the sport, she said.

The champion weightlifter said she was deeply affected by the media criticism of her selection for Sydney, labelled as biased as she was overweight for the 63-kg category in which she was to participate and because she had never participated in the 69-kg category for which she was chosen.

"I was mentally very upset, especially by what the magazines had written about me," she said. "You see, it is crucial for an athlete to be clear of any mental tension before a performance. But I was not."

Arguing that her weight had changed often only because she began weightlifting when she was 13 years old, Ms Malleswari said, "I am now 24.

Obviously, I could not have kept my body weight tied down at one level in all these years."

The weightlifter also said she believed Indian athletes could benefit substantially from training by foreign coaches as they would bring exhaustive international experience with them.

Speaking of her own training under the Russian coach, Mr Leonid Taranenko, Ms Malleswari said, "Taranenko can sense my feelings by just looking at my face." Ms Malleswari, however, added Indian coaches, too, are good.

The bronze medallist was philosophical when asked why she did not go on to win the gold as the difference between her and the gold medallist was just 2.5 kg, and especially since she had lifted greater weights at the Patiala training camp just before she left for Sydney.

"Luck!" she gave as the only reason why she could not reach the top.

IANS