Mangte Chungneijang Mary Kom (M.C. Mary Kom)
(Awarded Padmashree in the year 2005)

By Donny Meisnam Luwang *

M.C. Marykom a very talented lady in the field of boxing from the small state like Manipur has made the nation proud of her and admirer of every woman boxer in the country. Apart from being a top boxer player who ruled supreme in this game for nearly one decade, Mary has come long way and equally popular because of her personality.

No other woman player enjoyed the popularity that she did for such a long period. After having won for most of the national and international titles and receiving many privilege awards, Mary is now on her way to achieve her only dream to participate in the upcoming Olympic Game (2012) and win a gold medal.

M.C. Marykom was born on 1st March, 1983 at Samulamlan Village, P.O. Moirang, Manipur. From the early age she has shown keen interest in the field of sports. She started taking part in every sports activity during her school days. And she was famous in the field of athletics in her school.

So, it was in 1999 that she started taking training for Athletics from Sports Authority of India (SAI) located at Takyel in Imphal, Manipur. And during the same year, Mary started training for boxing under the guideline of coach Ibomacha at Khuman Lampak, SAI and after one month she played under Youth and Affairs of State (YAS) guided by two coaches Narajeet and Kishan.

"Get in the ring!" - Mangte Chungneijang Mary Kom

From 1999 onwards she started playing under the state level but unfortunately Mary has to suffer a lot when she realized that there were big differences between the SAI and YAS. She could hardly afford the cost of her travel allowances during that time and even she had to buy the gloves of boxing of her own and she said that it was her very dark regime during those days. But she did not lose the spirit, and she fought all the hurdles and reach the level of her dream which would have been difficult to reach by any common people in our society.

Not only are these hurdles, but Mary even had to face few objections from her family side when she started doing training for boxing. Her father M. Tonpa Kom never wants her daughter to be known as a boxing player since he believed that boxing might give her daughter a maximum damage during the fight inside the ring.

On the other hand her mother, M. Akham Kom was always supportive and gave encouragement as she believed in her daughter. Later she continues her boxing career with encouragement of her entire family.

It was in 2000 that she got the chance to participate in 1st Asian Women Boxing Championship at Thailand and it was her breakthrough into the international level but unfortunately to compete with the host country was difficult; she was defeated by a Thailand boxer in the final round.

During those days, she never lost her spirit and thought that it was her initial stage to start her boxing career and continues her practice from various coaches of the state as well as country.

Then comes the time of some rejoicement, when she got married to K. Onler Kom on 12th March 2005 and became the mother of twin sons on 5th August, 2007. And from that moment her family insisted her to quit boxing and start devoting her life for her husband, children and her entire family.

But it seems the Almighty does not want her to destroy her boxing career since her husband and her father-in-law supported her and wants her to see in the ring more. So, she continued her boxing with the grace of God and received several titles inside and outside the country.

With her twins which she dedicated the "Khel Ratna"

And it was in the same year 2007 when Mary was thinking that her career life was running on the right track, suddenly her father-in-law who was staying at Churachanpur, Manipur was gunned down by some unidentified local gunmen, she stop all her practice and decide to quit boxing as she cannot overcome the pain she got after losing her father-in-law as he used to give all the love and affectionate as well as encouragement in her entire career.

But her husband which she thinks is a "angel to her life" supported and give encouragement to forget the past and move on with her life, make her to come again inside the ring and continue to shine more for the nation as well as for her motherland, Manipur.

Mary says that it was the blessing from Jesus and her husband support that she is today standing in this position. She work hard and gave all her efforts for the betterment of the sportsmen of the state as well as for the country.

Being a woman boxing player, she approached to many authorities in Sports Department of the country for the upliftment of Women Boxing and also to bring up sports persons. And now she is very happy to know that woman boxing will also be taking part in the coming Olympic Game which is going to held on 2012.

Receiving the Padmashree Award in 2005

Now, Mary Kom is living her life to bring more boxer from Manipur to perform like her and bring pride for the nation. So, she has set up an Academy to train Manipur state boxer to which she gave the name as "M.C. Mary Kom Boxing Academy". This Boxing Academy is situated at the heart of Imphal City at Langol where she is also presently staying with her family members.

Some of the achievements that she got from International are:

1. 2nd Asian Women Boxing Championship. Hissar India. (Gold medal)
2. 3rd Asian Women Boxing Championship, Taiwan. (Gold medal)
3. 4th Asian Women Boxing Championship, Guwahati, India (Silver medal)
4. 1st World Women Boxing Championship, Pennsylvania, USA (Silver medal)
5. 2nd World Women Boxing Championship, Antalya, Turkey (Gold Medal)
6. 3rd World Women Boxing Champiosnhip, Podolsk, Russia (Gold medal)
7. 4th World Women Boxing Championship, New Delhi, India (Gold Medal)
8. 5th World Women Boxing Championship, ningbo, China (Gold Medal)
9. Witch Cup Boxing Championship, Paes, Hungary (Gold Medal)
10. Training-Cum-Competition, Rome, Italy (3 gold medal)
11. 1st World Women Boxing Tournament, Tonsberg, Norway (gold medal)
12. Vijle Women BOX Tournament, Denmark (gold medal)
13. Asian Cadet Boxing Championship, Hanoi, Vietnam (gold medal)
14. Indo-Sweden Dual Match Boxing Tournament.

National Achievements:

1. 7th East Open Boxing Championship held at Bengal (gold medal)
2. 1st Women National Boxing Championship, Chennai (gold medal)
3. 2nd Senior Women National boxing Championship, New Delhi (gold medal)
4. National Women Soprts Meet, New Delhi (gold medal)
5. 3rd Senior Women national Championship, Aizawal (gold medal)
6. 4th Senior Women national boxing championship, Assam (gold medal)
7. 5th Senior Women National Boxing Championship, Kerela (gold medal)
8. 6th national Senior Women Boxing Championship, Jamshedpur (gold medal)
9. 32nd National Games, Hyderabad, India (gold medal)
10. 9th Senior Women National Championship, Agra (gold medal).

Awards that she recieved are:

1. Arjuna Award for the year 2003.
2. Padmashri Award for the year 2005.
3. NETV people’s choice awards 2006.
4. People of the year for 2007.
5. Indian Real Heros Awards 2007.
6. Pepsi MTV Youth icon 2008
7. Param Poojaniya Shri Guruji Puruskar 2009.
8. Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Awards 2009 (which she is going to recieved from the Indian Government on 29th August, 2009)

Browse photo Gallery on MC Mary Kom

• Newspaper Clippings of Mangte Chungneijang Mary Kom
• Profile of Mangte Chungneijang Mary Kom (M.C. Mary Kom)
• World Champion Mary Kom triumphant return at Tulihal Airport :: 2008
• MC Mary Kom - Indian Real Heroes Award 2008
• Manipur welcomes Mary Kom & Sarita - World Boxing Champion, 2006.
• Felicitation of Mary Kom, World Champion & L. Sarita, Bronze Winner

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* Donny Meisnam Luwang is a young Manipuri writer / reporter based at Imphal. He is a regular contributor to e-pao.net.
This article was webcasted at e-pao.net on 30 August 2009.

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