MC Mary Kom: Indian Challenger (London Olympics)

MC Mary Kom, a sketch by foniars on Flickr.

As the London Olympics 2012 are less than a month away, let us give our sports person all the good wishes they need. This is the first in a series of sketches I will be doing titled Indian Challenger at London Olympics 2012.

Many of us desired, some of us tried but only a few could leap over the wall, let's hope they climb down the mountain.

Today's sketch is MC Mary Kom, who is the only Indian women boxer to qualify for the games. I include here the introduction from WIKIPEDIA (the free encyclopedia). 

Mangte Chungneijang Mary Kom, also known as MC Mary Kom or simply Mary Kom, (born 1 March 1983) is a boxer from Manipur,India. Mary Kom, a mother of two, is a five time successive World Boxing champion, a biennial amateur boxing competition organised by the International Boxing Association (AIBA). She is the only woman boxer to have won a medal in each one of the six World Championships. As of June 2012, she is ranked world no. 4 in the 51 kg women's category by AIBA. 

On 18 September 2010, Kom won the World Boxing Championship title in Bridgetown, Barbados for the fifth consecutive time. She defeated Romanian opponent Steluta Duta by a points difference of 16 to 6. In its successful mission to make women's boxing an Olympics programme, AIBA selected Kom as one of its three brand ambassadors in 2009. Kom, who always participated in light flyweight category, had to switch over flyweight as her usual weight category was not included in the 2012 Summer Olympics. She is the only Indian woman boxer who has qualified for the 2012 Summer Olympics, the quota she achieved in the 2012 AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships after reaching the quarter-final, where she lost to world number two Nicola Adams of England.

On 3 October 2010, she, along with Vijender Singh, had the honour of bearing the Queen's Baton in its opening ceremony run in the stadium for the 2010 Commonwealth Games of Delhi. SportsPro has rated Mary Kom as the 38th most remarkable athelete in the world. In order to honour the boxer, the lane routing to Manipur Sports Village has been named as Mary Kom Road.

For more information head over to:

• MC Mary Kom's Wikipedia page
• Mary Kom's Official Webpage
• Mary Kom's Bio

More in this series:

Saina Nehwal

Sushil Kumar