Mary Kom, who for years kept her passion for boxing a secret, has a chance on Wednesday to win a rare Olympic gold medal for India when she faces Nicola Adams of Britain.
Ms. Kom, a five-time world champion, guaranteed herself at least a bronze medal when she won the quarterfinal of the women's flyweight boxing event in London on Monday. (The losers of the semifinals are each awarded a bronze.)
Ms. Kom's chance for Olympic gold began in August 2009, when the International Olympic Committee announced that women's boxing would be added at the 2012 London Olympics.
“This is my dream come true,†Ms. Kom had told Somini Sengupta of The New York Times days after the announcement.
For the boxer who was born Mangte Chungneijang Merykom, the journey from a small town in India's northeastern state of Manipur to the Olympics in London has not been easy.
When she broke i nto a sport that Indian women have largely shunned, she found little support from her family or community. Ms. Sengupta wrote:
At 17, she left home to join a government-run sports training center in Imphal, the capital of her home state, Manipur, and begged the boxing coach to let her enter the ring.
“She was so small, I told her no,†the coach, L. Ibomcha Singh, said. Tears rolled down her face. The coach relented.
Kom kept boxing a secret from her family - until she won a state championship in 2000, and everyone, including her parents, discovered what she had been up to. Her father goaded her to give it up. Boxing is too dangerous, he told her. Members of her clan disapproved. The boys in her hometown ridiculed her. She held out.
“One day, I will show you who I am,†she recalled thinking.
“The tales of my struggles have no end. I did not have enough money to afford my basic needs like sports kits and a proper diet,†she told India Ink in a recent interview.
The stumbling blocks she faced, including a lack of basic training and adequate facilities, encouraged her to create in 2006 a boxing academy in her home state for aspirants like her.
Ms. Kom's greatest test, however, was getting back into the ring after the birth of her twin boys in August 2007. “It was hard to wean the boys off her breasts, harder still to leave them at home and go off to camp for a month at a time,†Ms. Sengupta wrote in 2009.
On Sunday, just as her twins celebrated their fifth birthday, their mother was busy punching her way to victory in her first match at the London Olympics.
Ms. Kom has been fighting in the 46-kilogram and 48-kilogram weight slots for most of her boxing career, but she trained hard to gain weight to qualify for the 51-kilogram category, the lowest of the three weight classes established for female boxers at the London Olympics.
“I will pray to God to keep my body fit,†she told Ms. Sengupta. “Because if my body is fit, I can do anything.â€
