“Never Buy Gold. Simply Earn It.”
— Magnificient Mary
The 36-year-old MC MARY KOM has been an inspiring force in women’s boxing in India.
In her 18-year long illustrious career, she has won six World Championships, an Olympic bronze medal, and five Asian Championships. She is the only woman to become World Amateur Boxing champion for a record six times, and the only woman boxer to have won a medal in each one of the seven world championships. Nicknamed Magnificent Mary, she is the only Indian woman boxer to have qualified for the 2012 Summer Olympics, competing in the flyweight (51 kg) category and winning the bronze medal.
She had also been ranked as No. 1 AIBA World Women’s Ranking Light Flyweight category. She became the first Indian woman boxer to get a Gold Medal in the Asian Games in 2014 at Incheon, South Korea and is the first Indian woman boxer to win gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
After her marriage, Mary Kom took a short hiatus from boxing. After the birth of her two children, Kom again started training. She won a silver medal at the 2008 Asian Women’s Boxing Championship in India and a fourth successive gold medal at the AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championship in China, followed by a gold medal at the 2009 Asian Indoor Games in Vietnam.
In 2010, Kom won the gold medal at the Asian Women’s Boxing Championship in Kazakhstan, and at the AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championship in Barbados, her fifth consecutive gold at the championship. She competed in Barbados in the 48 kg weight category, after AIBA had stopped using the 46 kg class. In the 2010 Asian Games, she competed in the 51 kg class and won a bronze medal. In 2011, she won gold in the 48 kg class at the Asian Women’s Cup in China.
At the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, she was defeated in the 51 kg semi-finals by Nicola Adams of the UK, but did succeed in getting a bronze medal.
On 1 October 2014, she won her first Gold Medal at the Asian Games held at Incheon, South Korea in the flyweight (51 kg) summit clash.
On 8 November 2017, she clinched an unprecedented fifth gold medal (48 kg) at the ASBC Asian Confederation women’s boxing championships held at Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam.
In the 2018 Commonwealth Games, she earned the gold medal gracefully in the Women’s light flyweight 48 kg on 14 April 2018, as expected.
On 24 November 2018, she created history by becoming the first woman to win 6 World Championships, achieving this feat at the 10th AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championships held in New Delhi, India.
As recently as July 28, 2019, Mary Kom won the gold medal at the 23rd President’s Cup in Indonesia in the 51 kg category without breaking a sweat.
On 26 April 2016, Kom was nominated by the President of India as a member of the Rajya Sabha. In March 2017, the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India, appointed Mary Kom as a national observer for boxing.