Olympian: Mangte Chungneijang Mary Kom – Boxing

Manipur at 2012 London Olympics>Mangte Chungneijang Mary Kom-  (MC Mary Kom) – boxing

Profile by:  Wahengbam Rorrkychand

Name: Mangte Chungneijang Mary Kom (MC Mary Kom)

Nick names: “Magnificent Mary”, “Queen Mary”

Born: March 1, 1983 (age 29)

Place of birt(: Kangathei, Churachandpur, Manipur

Weight: N/A, category: 51 kg

Father’s Name: Mangte Tonpa Kom

Mother’s Name: Mangte Akham Kom

Spouse: K Onler Kom

Children: Twin sons, Rechungvar and Khupneivar Present

<strong%3Coach: N/A

2012 Olympics sport: Olympic women’s boxing 2012

Olympics event date: Excel, London, August 5th-9th, 2012

Mangte Chungneijang Mary Kom ( Mary Kom)  is the only Indian woman boxer from Manipur  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.

“I will be the only Indian woman boxer at Olympics. I will be part of history and that really means a lot to me”

Her family background speaks a lot of how Mary overcame hardship and inconveniences and created a name for herself in the arena of world boxing. Her parents Mr. Mangte Tonpa Kom and Mrs Mangte Akham Kom earned their livelihood by working and being engaged in others jhum fields.

Being the eldest, Mary helped her parents work in the fields, cutting woods, making charcoal and fishing. On the other hand, she spent a good time looking after her two younger sisters and a brother.

There is a video online, a tribute to Mary by a Manipuri rock band.

In the montage of visuals is a shot of her weeping while addressing a gathering of young students.

Why, I ask her, what made her emotional?

“I was giving a speech about my story, how I’m doing my boxing. So first when I start boxing, it’s very very hard, I’m doing a lot of struggle. My family cannot give me full financial support. As a player we are supposed to have good shoes, good dress, no? Whatever my family is getting for me, I used to wear and play. I’m fighting five years without any good diet. No supplement, no egg. No breakfast. Just lunch and dinner, vegetable only and rice. Sometimes when the relative I am staying with in Imphal, when he gets salary, then we get meat. Once a month, yes, exactly. So I get emotional.”

She laughs at the thought of her tears, as she always laughs.

 Manipuri women boxer, M. C Mary Kom, who is currently at world no 4 (as of June 2012) in the International Boxing Associations’ rating is one of the most hopeful Indian players in the 2012 London Olympic.
As per her official website claimed,

“Her most awaited Gold-medal will be at the London 2012 Olympics”.

Moreover, Mary, who claimed as the “Mission (almost) Accomplished” boxer is confident of a medal in the upcoming London Olympic, told DNA “In Olympics if you win one bout, you are in quarterfinals. And keeping in mind my training so far, one thing I am sure of is that I’m going to bring one medal home… Gold, silver or bronze, I can’t really predict,” and she would bound to England early, “I will leave for the Olympics on July 21 and will train in Liverpool under Charles Atkinson. He will decide my training partner,” she informed.
Very recently, she has been rated as “the 38th most marketable athletes” in the world by the British magazine, SportsPro.

Family Background:   

Mary who is a five times successive winner of World Boxing Champion winner, born at a remote place of Manipur, Kangathelknear Moirang, Bishnupur district. She married to K Onler Kom on 12th March 2005 and has twin sons, Rechungvar and Khupneivar.
Being the eldest (two younger sisters and a brother), while she was with her parents, Mary helped her parents work in the fields, cutting woods, making charcoal and fishing.

Early Career:

Since she was interested in sports especially in athletics, after her class VIII in St.Xavier School, Moirang, she came to Imphal and continued her studies at Adimjati School. Being so fond of sports, she e.quired around and found out about women boxing.
It was a new idea since women boxers were relatively unknown those days. The rise of Dingko Singh and the demonstration of women boxers at the 5th National Games (Manipur) inspired her.

“Mary Kom decided to hang up her books and enter into the ring with determination and strong will. To pursue her dream of becoming a world class pugilist, she joined Sports Authority of India, Khuman Lampak and underwent an intensive training from coach and mentor, Ibomcha Singh,” claimed her official website.
Even though she came from a remote village, Mary got support and guidance from various eminent individuals including, Manipur State coaches Narjit Singh and Kishan Singh, apart from them she got constant patronage from Khoibi Salam, Secretary of MABA and Vice President of IABA.

Government Support:

In 2005 Manipur Government gave her the post of Sub-inspector of police in 2005. She was promoted to inspector of police in 2008 and after her promotion in 2010 she is working as a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) in CID. She was also given a house at National Games Village without any cost for her outstanding achievements.

 

Mangte Chungneijang Mary Kom National Record:

Sl.No	Event	Venue	Year	Medal
1	57th India Police Meet	Pune(Maharashtra)	6-10th April 2010	Gold Medal
2	9th Senior Women National Championship	Agra	02-07 Nov. 2008	Gold Medal
3	6th National Senior Women Boxing Championship	Jamshedpur	29 Nov-3 Dec 005	Gold Medal
4	5th Senior Women National Boxing Championship	Kerela	26 – 30 Dec 2004	Gold Medal
5	4th Senior Women National Boxing Championship	Assam	24 – 28 Feb.2004	Gold Medal
6	3rd Senior Women National Boxing Championship	Aizawl	04 – 08 Mar 2003	Gold Medal
7	National Women Sports Meet	N.Delhi	26 – 30 Dec 2002	Gold Medal
8	32nd National Games	Hyderabad, India	13 – 22 Dec 2002	Gold Medal
9	2nd Senior Women National Boxing Championship	N.Delhi	26 –30 Dec 2001	Gold Medal
10	1stWomen National Boxing Championship	Chennai	06 – 11 Feb 2001	Gold Medal
11	7th East Open Boxing Championship held	Bengal	11 –14 Dec2000	Gold Medal

Mangte Chungneijang Mary Kom International Record:

Sl. No.	Event	Venue	Year	Medal
1	Witch Cup Boxing Chmpionship	Paes, Hungary	27-31 Aug2002	Gold Medal
2	2nd World Women Boxing Championship	Antalya, Turkey	19-28 Oct 2002	Gold Medal
3	1st World Women Boxing Championship	Pennsylvania,USA	27Nov-02Dec 2002	Silver Medal
4	Training-Cum-Competition	Rome, Italy	02-13 Sept 2003	3 Gold Medal
5	2nd Asian Women Boxing Championship	Hissar, India	19-22 Nov 2003	Gold Medal
6	1st World Women Boxing Tournament	Tonsberg, Norway	27 Apr-02May 2004	Gold Medal
7	3rd World Women Boxing Championship	Podolsk, Russia	26Sept-02Oct 2005	Gold Medal
8	3rd Asian Women Boxing Championship	Taiwan	05-12 Aug 2005	Gold Medal
9	Asian Cadet Boxing Championship	Hanamnoi, Viet	10-18 June 2006	Gold Medal
10	4th World Women Boxing Championship	N.Delhi, India	17-24 Nov 2006	Gold Medal
11	Vijle Women BOX Tournament	Denmark	18-23 Oct 2006	Gold Medal
12	4th Asian Women Boxing Championship	Guwahati, India	23-27 Sept 2008	Silver Medal
13	5th World Women Boxing Championship	Ningbo, China	22-29 Nov 2008	Gold Medal
14	Indo-Sweden Dual Match Boxing Tournament	Gothenberg, Sweden	3/21/2009	Gold Medal
15	Indoor Asian Games	Hanoi, Vietnam	30Oct-7Nov 2009	Gold Medal
16	5th Asian Women’s Boxing Championship	Astana, Kazakhstan	23-30 May 2010	Gold Medal
17	6th AIBA Women World Boxing Championship	Barbados	7-18 Sept 2010	Gold Medal
18	16th Asian Games	Guangzhou, China	12-28 Dec 2010	Bronze Medal
19	Asia Cup	Haikou, China	5-9 May 2011	Gold Medal
20	6th Asian Women’s Boxing Championship	Mongolia	16-26 March 2012	Gold Medal

Source: Manipur Olympic Association

Mangte Chungneijang Mary Kom Awards Details:

Sl No	Award	Place/Date/Institution/Organisation
1	Arjuna Award For the Year-2003	21st September 2004, Government Of India
2	Padma Shri Award for the year-2005	20th March 2006, Government Of India
3	NETV People’s Choice Awards-2006
4	People of the Year for-2007	(Limca Book of Records) India at her best
5	Indian Real Heros Awards-2007	CNN-IBN, Reliance Industries Limited, Mumbai
6	Pepsi MTV Youthicon-2008
7	Param Poojaniya Shri Guruji Puruskar-2009	RSS Jankalyan, Maharastra Prant
8	Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award-2007	29th August 2009, Rastrpati Bhavan, New Bhavan, New Delhi
9	North East Excellence Award-2009	29th-9th January 2010, Calcutta
10	Sports Women of the year 2008-2009	Sahara India Pariwar
11	YFLO Women Achiever 2009-2010	FCCI Ladies Organisations
12	Sportsperson of the Year, North East-2010	Assam Sports Journalist Association
13	Sports Women of the Year 2010-2011	Sahara India Pariwar
14	Spirit of Sports Award 2010	NDTV India, 5th March 2012
15	Tribal Achievers’ Award 2012	Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government Of India

 

*Special Thanks to  Manas Maisnam  for drawing  the  Manipuri  Olympians – 2012 for KanglaOnline.com 

Photo courtesy: Economist: Intelligent Life Magazine

References

• Mary Kom Official Website http://www.marykom.com/marykom/index.php
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Kom (Wikipedia)
• http://tinyurl.com/cso7ouh (Economist: Intelligent Life – cover story, photos)
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/18102941 (BBC – article, photo)
• https://www.facebook.com%2MaryKomOfficial (Official Facebook page)
• https://www.facebook.com/mangte.marykom (Facebook profile)
• http://tinyurl.come2F7dguyzc (IndiaTimes – article, photos)