When Struggle and Hardships Paid-Off for These Indian Olympic Stars

Mary Kom:

Mangte Chungneijan Mary Kom was born in Kangathei, Manipur. She was the only Indian woman boxer to have qualified for the 2012 London Olympics and thus making the country proud by winning the bronze with her lion-hearted show in the 2012 London Olympics. Her parents were field workers. She had a keen interest in athletic right from her childhood, and it was the success of Dingko Singh, gold medalist at 1988 Asian Games that inspired her to become a boxer. Kom tried to hide her interest in boxing from her family, since it was not considered a suitable sport for a woman. Her parents were reluctant to allow her to fight, but however a victory in Manipur Women State Championships in 2000, her parents gave her the green signal to fight. Kom was under weight and had to endure lot of weight training exercises. She got trained from her 72- year old coach Charles Atkinson. Her coach made her run for run 25-minutes. When she covered the distance at the allotted time, her coach made her run for the next few days. Endurance training in the morning and skill training in the afternoon, made sure she was in the best of shapes at the 2012 London Olympics. Even when one of her twin sons had to undergo treatment, she was forced to train. Her hard work had paid off and thus a medal to the country.