Mary Kom

Mangte Chungneijang Mary Kom, popularly known as MC Mary Kom or by her nickname, ‘Magnificent Mary’, is an Indian boxer who has the distinction of having won eight medals at the

the International Boxing Association (IBA) World Championships. Her medal haul includes six gold medals, four at pinweight and two at light flyweight, a silver medal at light flyweight and a bronze medal at flyweight. No other boxer, male or female, has been so successful. Kom is also a five-time gold medallist, at three different weights, at the Asian Championships, a gold medallist, at flyweight, at the Asian Games and a gold medallist, at light flyweight, at the Commonwealth Games.

At the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, women’s boxing was included in the programme for the first time, but only in flyweight, lightweight and middleweight divisions. By that stage, Kom was well known in the world of amateur boxing, but more so in the light flyweight or pinweight division, so needed to move up to flyweight to compete.

Having made hard work of beating Karolina Michalczuk of Poland 19-14 in the first round, Kom cruised past Maroua Rahali of Tunisia 15-6 in the second to set up a semi-final meeting with Nicola Adams of Great Britain. Kom never really settled against the number two seed, who boxed beautifully, eventually losing 6-11, but nonethless securing the bronze medal. Adams, of course, went on to beat Ren Cancan of China 16-7 in the gold medal match. Kom failed to qualify for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo suffered a unexpected 3-2 defeat at the hands of Ingrit Valencia of Colombia in the second round.