Mary Kom, one of India’s most well-known and celebrated boxers of all time, attained fame as she became the only woman to have won a medal at each of the seven boxing championships. During her career, she amassed a total of 16 medals from 12 different championships, including a gold medal from the 2004 Athens Olympics, which was held in Greece. Knowing more about Mary Kom biography enlightens Mary Kom in more detail.
Childhood and introduction to boxing
A fighter’s journey begins with practice, discipline, and rigorous training. And with consistency and self-motivation, a sportsperson becomes not only successful but an icon, reaching the pinnacle of a sporting career. For Mary Kom, the story of her evolution is reminiscent of this.
One of the most celebrated women boxers of all time, Mary Kom, began her journey in a small village. She was born on the 24th of November 1982 in a place called Kagathei village, which is located in Manipur. She hails from the Kom tribe, which is one of the oldest tribes to have settled in and around Manipur, and was born into a humble family. From a young age, Mary had been keen on sports and had a knack for it. As a result, she would often partake in her school’s sporting activities and tournaments and would often end up winning more often than not as a winner across different categories, including a 400-meter run and javelin throw. However, her interest in boxing was awakened by Dingko Singh, a fellow resident of Manipur, who came back to her village with a gold medal from the Bangkok Asian Games hosted in 1998. While the incident was impactful enough to encourage many youths in the village who wanted to follow suit and started to hone their prospect in boxing, Mary was the only one who demonstrated the ability to not only evince an innate ability but also the prospect of making a career out of her talent.
She started training as a boxer, as mentioned in the Mary Kom biography under her coach K. Kosana Meitei. According to her coach, she had a talent for the sport right from the time she walked inside the ring. Her mentors could spot her natural intuition and quickness in learning the fundamentals of the sport quite effortlessly. She emerged as the first female boxer to have won the Best Boxer Award at the First State Level Invitation for the women’s boxing championship held in Manipur. She quickly began to draw attention even as a beginner at the sport and soon enough won the gold medal in the Seventh East India Women’s Boxing Championship held in West Bengal.
Career in boxing
Mary is known for being one of the most successful Indian athletes to have won more than four national championships. She is also the only female boxer to have won gold in 6 different World Championship games. Over the course of her career, Mary competed in several prestigious international sporting tournaments such as the Asian Games (2010 and 2014) and the 2012 Olympic Games held in London.
If you are interested to dig in and learn more about her participation and career history, then you can find it all in her Mary Kom biography. However, here are some of her most noteworthy appearances to start with.
- She participated in the Women’s World Boxing Championships, a series of championships first started in Scranton, USA, in 2001. She is the only boxer to have won the gold six times in this category. She started with a silver medal at the 2001 Scranton edition and went on to later win the gold in the following Championships:
- 2002 (Antalya Turkey)
- 2005 (Podolsk, Poland)
- 2006 (New Delhi, India)
- 2008 (Ningbo City, China)
- 2010 (Bridgetown, Barbados)
- 2018 (New Delhi, India)
- She also won a bronze medal at the 2019 Championship hosted in Ulan-Ude, Russia.
- Mary Kom won five golds and two silvers at the Asian Championships:
- 2003 (Hisar, India) – Gold
- 2005 (Kaohsiung, Taiwan) – Gold
- 2008 (Guwahati, India) – Silver
- 2010 (Astana, Kazakhstan) – Gold
- 2012 (Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia) – Gold
- 2017 (Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam) – Gold
- 2021 (Dubai, UAE) – Silver
- Apart from appearing in the Asian Games twice and the Asian Indoor Games once, Mary also participated in the 2009 Asian Indoor Games hosted in Hanoi in Vietnam, where she fought her way to the first position and won the gold medal. Mary Kom also secured the gold medal in the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. More about her achievements are mentioned in Mary Kom’s biography.
- Her first time at the Asian Games was at the 2010 Guangzhou edition, where she finished with a bronze medal. In her second appearance at the 2014 Incheon edition, she won the gold medal in Flyweight-class women’s boxing.
- She also competed in the 2012 London Olympics and won a bronze medal for India. This was the most stunning feat accomplished by India’s Magnificent Mary which quickly led to her becoming a household name across the length and breadth of India.
It’s not just her sporting accomplishments that make Mary Kom a name to reckon with. A staunch supporter of animal rights and determined to elevate the sporting landscape in India, she is one strong and feisty woman, as described in Mary Kom’s biography. She was conferred with the Padma Vibhushan for Sports in 2020, India’s second-highest civilian award. She was also nominated to become a member of the Indian Parliament for her contribution to sports, and she emerged as one of the strong and indefatigable speakers to speak her mind on the floor of the Parliament.