Mangte Chungneijang Born on November 24, 1982, Mary Kom OLY is a politician, former Rajya Sabha member, and Indian boxer trained for the Olympics. She is the first boxer—male or female—to have earned eight World Championship medals. She is also the only woman to have won the World Amateur Boxing Championship six times and to have medaled in each of the first seven World Championships.
Mary Kom Info
| Born | 24 November 1982 (age 41 years), Kangathei |
| Medals | Boxing at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Women’s flyweight, |
| Awards | Padma Bhushan, Padma Shri, Padma Vibhushan, |
| Spouse | K Onler Kom (m. 2005) |
| Children | Rechungvar Kom, Khupneivar Kom |
| Full name | Mangte Chungneijang Mary Kom |
| Nominations | Big Star Most Entertaining Sportsperson of the Year |
| Birthplace | Kangathei, Manipur, India |
| Parents | Mangte Tonpa Kom (father) Mangte Akham Kom(mother) |
| Childrens | Rechungvar and Khupneivar(twins), Prince Kom |
| Profession | Professional Boxer |
| Age | 41 Years |
| Coach | Kosana Meitei |
| Nicknames | Magnificent Mary |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Religion | Christianity |
| Education | Loktak Christian Model High School, Manipur |
| Height | 5 feet 2 inches |
Mary Kom Early life
In the rural Indian state of Manipur’s Churachandpur district, in the village of Kagathei, Moirang Lamkhai, Kom was born. Her family was a low-income Kom family.Mangte Tonpa Kom and Mangte Akham Kom, her parents, were tenant farmers who labored in jhum fields. Chungneijang was her given name. Kom was up in a modest environment, attending school, helping her parents with farm chores, and first learning athletics and then boxing all at the same time. When Kom’s father was younger, he was an avid wrestler. She has a younger sister and a brother, making her the oldest of the three children. Her family is a Baptist Christian family.
After completing her sixth year of education at the Loktak Christian Model High School in Moirang, Kom continued her education up to class 8 at St. Xavier Catholic School in Moirang. She had a strong interest in athletics around this time, particularly 400-meter sprinting and the javelin. At this point, another Manipuri, Dingko Singh, returned with a gold medal from the 1998 Asian Games held in Bangkok. According to Kom, this encouraged a lot of young people in Manipur to attempt boxing, and she herself considered doing so.
Kom transferred to Adimjati High School in Imphal after finishing class 8 to attend classes 9 and 10, however she failed the matriculation exam. She left school, took her test at NIOS, Imphal, and graduated from Churachandpur College since she didn’t want to reappear for them.
Kom took part in volleyball, football, and athletics as a student-athlete. In 2000, she decided to transition from athletics to boxing because to Dingko Singh’s success. In Imphal, she began training with her first coach, K. Kosana Meitei. She chose to move away from her birthplace at the age of fifteen in order to attend the Imphal Sports Academy. Meitei recalled her as a committed, industrious girl with a strong will and swift learning curve for the fundamentals of boxing in an interview with the BBC. She then trained at Khuman Lampak under M. Narjit Singh, the state boxing coach of Manipur.
Since her father was a former wrestler, Kom kept her interest in boxing a secret from him out of concern that it would damage Kom’s face. and ruin her prospects of getting married. But he found out about it when a newspaper with Kom’s picture in it ran following her 2000 state boxing championship victory. After three years, her father started to encourage Kom to continue boxing because he realized how much she loved the sport.
Mary Kom Career
Following her marriage, Kom briefly stopped boxing. Following the birth of her first kid, Kom returned to the gym. In the 2008 AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championships in China, she earned a gold medal, and in the 2008 Asian Women’s Boxing Championship in India, she got a silver medal. In the 2009 Asian Indoor Games in Vietnam, she won a gold medal.
2010 saw Kom win her fifth consecutive gold medal in the AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championship in Barbados, as well as the gold medal at the Asian Women’s Boxing Championship in Kazakhstan . After AIBA discontinued utilizing the 46 kg class, she participated in Barbados in the 48 kg weight division. She participated in the 51 kg class and took home a bronze medal from the 2010 Asian Games.38 She was the 2011 Asian Women’s Cup gold medallist in the 48 kg class in China.
She shared the privilege of carrying the Queen’s Baton during the stadium’s opening ceremony for the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi on October 3, 2010, together with Sanjay and Harshit Jain. But as women’s boxing was not a part of the Commonwealth Games, she did not compete.
After the international body decided to only allow women’s boxing in three weight categories, removing the lower weight classes, Kom, who had previously competed in the 46 and 48 kg categories, moved to the 51 kg category.
Kom was vying not just for the title at the 2012 AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championship but also for a spot in the London Olympics, which marked the first time women’s boxing had been an Olympic sport. Nicola Adams of the UK defeated her in the quarterfinals at 51 kg. She was the only female Indian boxer to make it to the Olympics; Laishram Sarita Devi missed out on a spot in the 60 kg class.
Kom’s mother traveled with her to London. Kom’s trainer Charles Atkinson was unable to accompany her to the Olympic Village since he was not in possession of the required International Boxing Association (AIBA) 3 Star Certification. While traveling to Bangkok, Thailand for the Asian Women’s Boxing Championships selection camp, she experienced the theft of both her passport and all of her luggage. In the third women’s boxing event to ever take place in the Olympics, Kom defeated Karolina Michalczuk of Poland 19–14 on August 5, 2012, to advance to the first Olympic round. The following day, she defeated Tunisian Maroua Rahali in the quarterfinal, 15–6. On August 8, 2012, she played against Nicola Adams of the United Kingdom and lost.
the match, 6 to 11. Still, she finished third in the tournament and won a bronze medal at the Olympics. In a cabinet meeting on August 9, 2012, the Manipur government recognized her with a cheque for Rs 50 lakhs and two acres of land.
She competed against Colombian boxer Ingrit Valencia, the bronze medallist from the Rio Olympics, in the 2020 Summer Olympics. The announcer declared the winner on points by split decision as the game came to a close. After a brief delay, there was another little pause before “in red,” but by then Mary Kom, in the blue corner, had raised her fist in delight and was not paying attention to the remainder of the commentary that mentioned “Ingrit Valencia.” “I had already defeated this chick twice. The referee raised her hand, and I couldn’t believe it. In an interview, she remarked, “I swear, I was so sure that I hadn’t realized I lost.
At the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea, Kom defeated Zhaina Shekerbekova of Kazakhstan in the flyweight (51 kg) summit match to win her first gold medal in boxing.
She won an incredible fifth gold medal (48 kg) on November 8, 2017, during the Asian Boxing Confederation (ASBC) women’s boxing championships in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam.
Since her division, Light Flyweight, was not added until the 2018 Commonwealth Games, the only significant international competition in which she had not taken home a medal was the Commonwealth Games. On April 14, 2018, Kom won the gold medal in the women’s 48 kg light flyweight competition.
She made history on November 24, 2018, at the 10th AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championships in New Delhi, India, by becoming the first female champion of six world titles.
Mary Kom earned her seventh medal at the Asian Championships in May 2021, but Nazym Kazaibay defeated her in Sunday’s women’s 51kg final. In 2003, Kom took home her first medal from the competition.
In the semi-final of the August 2021 Asian Boxing Olympic Qualifying rounds, Kom was defeated by Chang Yuan of China.
Mary Kom Facts
- Mary Kom is a high school dropout though she later on finished her schooling through alternative ways and even completed her graduation.
- Her biggest inspiration was Dingko Singh who won the gold medal in boxing in 1998 Asian Games.
- As a young girl she faced vehement opposition from her parents regarding her choice of a career as a boxer.
- She is the only Indian female boxer to qualify for, and win a medal in the Olympics.
- Mary is the only female boxer to win a medal in six consecutive world championships.
- She is the first Indian woman boxer to win a gold medal in the Asian Games.
- She, along with Sanjay and Harshit Jain, bore the Queen’s Baton in the opening ceremony run in the stadium for the 2010 Commonwealth Games of Delhi.
- Mary Kom is the first amateur athlete to win the Padma Bhushan.
- She is the first amateur to surpass several professional athletes in India in earnings, endorsements and awards.
- She is a supporter of animal rights, and has been associated with animal rights organization, PETA India.
Mary Kom Achievements
| 2001 | AIBA Women’s World Championships |
| 2002 | AIBA Women’s World Championships |
| 2002 | Witch Cup |
| 2003 | Asian Women’s Championships |
| 2004 | Women’s World Cup |
| 2005 | Asian Women’s Championships |
| 2006 | Venus Women’s Box Cup |
| 2009 | Asian Indoor Games |
| 2010 | AIBA Women’s World Championships |
| 2011 | Asian Women’s Cup |
| 2012 | Asian Women’s Championships |
| 2017 | Asian Women’s Championships |
| 2019 | 2019 AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championships |
Mary Kom National
- Gold – 1st Women Nat. Boxing Championship, Chennai 6–12.2.2001
- The East Open Boxing Champ, Bengal 11–14 December 2001
- 2nd Sr World Women Boxing Championship, New Delhi 26–30 December 2001
- National Women Sort Meet, N. Delhi 26–30 December 2001
- 32nd National Games, Hyderabad 2002
- 3rd Sr World Women Boxing Champ, Aizawl 4–8.3.2003
- 4th Sr WWBC, Kokrajar, Assam 24–28 February 2004
- 5th Sr WWBC, Kerala 26–30 December 2004
- 6th Sr WWBC, Jamshedpur 29 November-3.12.2005
- 10th WNBC, Jamshedpur lost QF by 1–4 on 5 October 2009
For the bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics
- ₹5 million (US$63,000) cash award and two acres of land from the Manipur Government
- ₹2.5 million (US$31,000) cash award from the Rajasthan Government
- ₹2 million (US$25,000) cash award from the Assam Government
- ₹1 million (US$13,000) cash award from the Arunachal Pradesh Government
- ₹1 million (US$13,000) cash award from the Ministry of Tribal Affairs (India)
- ₹4 million (US$50,000) cash award from the North Eastern Council
- ‘Meethoileima’ title, Manipur Govt. (2018)
Mary Kom Personal life
Kom is wed to Karung Onkholer, a football player (Onler). In 2000, Kom saw her spouse for the first time after her train luggage was taken on her way to Bangalore. On her way to the National Games in Punjab, she stopped in New Delhi and met Onkholer, a law student at Delhi University. Onkholer assisted Kom while serving as the North East student body president. Following their friendship, they started dating. In 2005, after four years together, they got married.
Together, the couple has three sons: a 2007 set of twins and a 2013 boy. Merilyn was the girl whom Kom and her husband adopted in 2018.
Mary Kom Movie
The Mary Kom movie was released on September 5, 2014. The Bollywood biopic, starring Priyanka Chopra, is about the Indian boxer’s early career before she became an Olympic medallist.
The Mary Kom movie was released in September 5, 2014. The film, that celebrates the life and accomplishments of the six-time world amateur boxing champion from Manipur, was a runaway hit at the box office. It raked in Rs 104 crores despite being made on a relatively small-budget of Rs 18 crore.
The Mary Kom film was directed by Omung Kumar, who made his directorial debut with this film. Sanjay Leela Bhansali was the producer. Bhansali’s involvement with the project was particularly surprising. The Padma Shri winner is primarily noted for producing or directing big-budget grand scale dramas like Paadmavat, Devdas and Saawariya. However, the national award-winning filmmaker himself admitted later that the opportunity to retell the story of an iconic figure like Mary Kom was impossible to pass on, even if it was uncharted territory for him. Given Mary Kom’s quiet and powerful demeanour, it was a challenge to find an actor to play the ace boxer. Eventually, Priyanka Chopra was roped in to play the role. Darshan Kumar was cast as Mary Kom’s husband, Onler Kom while popular Nepalese actor Sunil Thapa took up the mantle of her coach and mentor M. Narjit Singh.
Cast of Mary Kom movie
| Priyanka Chopra | Mary Kom |
| Sunil Thapa | M. Narjit Singh, Mary Kom’s coach |
| Robin Das | Mary Kom’s father |
| Rajni Basumatary | Mary Kom’s mother |
| Darshan Kumaar | Onler Kom, Mary Kom’s husband |
| Lin Laishram | Bem |
| Bijou Thaangjam | Naobi |
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