100 of the Most Influential Women in Sport >> Athletes

Mary Kom, India

Boxing

Mary Kom’s honours list reads like a collection of “firsts” and “onlys”. First and only boxer to win the World Amateur Boxing championship six times, after she won her sixth at the 2018 championships. Only woman boxer to have won a medal at each of the seven World Championships. First Indian women’s boxer to have won an Olympic medal (2012), an Asian games gold medal (2014), and a Commonwealth Games gold medal (2018). Now she has her sights set on the ultimate prize: Olympic gold. Though she missed out on qualifying for the 2016 Olympics, she’s aiming to set the record straight next year in Tokyo. Kom is already regarded as the greatest women’s boxer in India’s history, but an individual gold medal at the Olympics would be something else – only one person, male or female, in any sport, has done it before, when shooter Abhinav Bindra won gold in 2008. The competition will be fierce. But beating the odds has become a habit for Mary Kom. Who’s going to bet against her this time?

– In 2018, a road in Imphal, where she lives, was renamed the MC Mary Kom Road in her honour.

– Mary Kom is one of the few athletes to have an “official” nickname, after the International Amateur Boxing Association gave her the title “Magnificent Mary” in 2007.

– Kom has established a fight class in her home city of Imphal to teach women self-defence.

Did you know…

Mary Kom is a member of the Indian parliament, having been nominated for the upper house by the President of India in 2016.

“People used to say that boxing is for men and not for women and I thought I will show them someday. I promised myself, and I proved myself.” – Mary Kom

Twitter: @mangtec