Mary Kom (Boxing)

Mangte Chungneijang Mary Kom also know as MC Mary Kom, Simply Mary Kom, is a boxer from Manipur, India. Kom was born in Kangathei, in Churachandpur district of Manipur in Easten India on March 1, 1983. She is a five-time World Amateur Boxing champion, and the only woman boxer to have won a medal in each one of the six World Championships. Nicknamed ‘Magnificient Mary’, she is the only Indian women boxer to have qualified for the 2012 Summer Olympics, competing in the flyweight (51 kg) and winning the bronze medal.

Born into a poor family she began helping her parents in by working in the fields while she was still very young. As a school girl she used to play a variety of sports such as hockey, football and athletics but surprisingly not boxing! When the Manipuri boxer Dingko Singh won a gold at the Asian Games in 1998, she was inspired to take up boxing. Still taking up a sport considered ‘masculine’ by social standards was no easy task for the young tribal girl. But Mary was not someone to be discouraged, and traveled to Imphal to train in athletics. Today her success is for all to see! Of course, there is more to Mary Kom than just professional success, she also teaches boxing to the under-privileged youngsters for free.

She was the eldest of the four siblings and had to work hard from a very young ge to fend for her family. She not only went to school to study, but also took care of her younger siblings and worked in the fields with her parents to help them. She started her training under M. Narjit Singh, Manipur State Boxing Coach at Khuman Lampak, Imphal. She met K Onler Kom when she was at New Delhi in 2001 on her way to the National Games in Punjab.  The young man was highly impressed by Mary’s grit and ambitions. The couple dated for four years before tying the note in 2005. They have been blessed with three sons. Her much awaited autobiography, ‘Unbreakable’ which chronicles around all her life struggles and how she rose above them was released in 2013 by Harper Collins.

Her first career win came in 2000 when she won the best Boxer award at the First State level Invitation to the women’s boxing championship in Manipur. After that she proceded to win the gold in the Seventh East India Women’s Boxing Championship held in West Bengal. A profiled woman who demonstrated a relentless passion for the game, she won a total of 5 National Championships held from 2000 to 2005. Between 2001 and 2006, she won the AIBA World Boxing Championship thrice in the years 2002, 2005, and 2006, and came second in the year 2001.

A petite woman, she competed in the 51 kg class in the 2010 Asian Games and won a bronze medal. Again at the Asian Women’s Boxing Championship in Mongolia in 2012 she participated in the same 51 kg class and won the gold medal., In 2012 Women’s boxing featured as an in the Summer Olympics in London for the first time. Mary did manage in securing a place at the events and won a bronze medal.

Awards:

Award	Year
Arjuna Award (Boxing)	2003
Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna (Contender)	2007
People of the Year – Limca Book of Records	2007
Reliance Industries’ Real Heroes Award	2008
Pepsi MTV Youth Icon	2008
‘Magnificent Mary’ AIBA	2008
Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award	2009
IBA’s Ambassador for Women’s Boxing	2009
Sahara Sport’s Women of the year	2010
Padma Shree (Sports)	2010
Padmaa Bhushan (Sports)	2013

Mary Kom is a supporter of animal rights, and has associated with animal rights organisation, PETA India, to call for an end to the use of elephants in circuses by staring in an ad. Mary has also backed India’s PETA human education campaign, Compassionate Citizen. She has also written a letter to the education minister of the state and union territories of India requesting that the programme be incorporated into the official curriculum of the schools.