Mangte Chungneijang Mary Kom OLY, famously known as Mary Kom, is a famous Indian boxer and an incumbent member of the Parliament of India. Mary Kom is an amateur boxer by profession and has also joined politics in recent times. Mary Kom, who is nicknamed Magnificent Mary, is one of the most renowned sports personalities of India and the world. The story of Mary Kom is always an inspiration for all those who are facing a struggle in their profession (especially sports), and they can learn how they can overcome all these problems to achieve success in their life.

Early Life

Family and Childhood

• Mary Kom, whose full name is Mangte Chungneijang Mary Kom OLY, was born in a small village (Kagathei village, Moirang Lamkhai) of the rural part of the Churachandpur district of Manipur in India.
• Mary Kom used to help her parents in their farming and farm-related chores, and she grew up in very humble surroundings that played a very crucial role in her overall behavioural development. In her childhood or initial days, the daily routine of Mary Kom includes going to school, then helping her parents with the farm-related chores, and after that learning athletics initially but later she started learning boxing simultaneously.
• Mary Kom, who hails from a Christian Baptist family, has a younger sister and a younger brother.

Schooling

Kom studied at the Loktak Christian Model High School at Moirang up to her sixth standard and thereafter attended St. Xavier Catholic School, Moirang, up to class 8. During this time, she took a good amount of interest in athletics, especially javelin and 400 meters running. It was at this juncture, Dingko Singh, a fellow Manipuri returned from the 1998 Bangkok Asian games with a gold medal. Kom recollects that this had inspired many youngsters in Manipur to try boxing, and she too thought of giving it a try.

Sports

• During her schooling, Mary Kom participated in all types of sports (including volleyball, football and athletics) and sporting events held in her school, but it was only the success of Dingko Singh in the Olympics which inspired Mary Kom to become more indulged in the boxing. Truly and completely inspired by the success of Dingko Singh and the developing interest of Mary Kom in boxing, she completely switched her focus from athletics to Boxing to pursue her career in Boxing only.
• In an interview with the BBC, Meitei remembered her as a dedicated hardworking girl with a strong will power, who picked up the basics of boxing quickly. Thereafter, she trained under the Manipur state boxing coach M. Narjit Singh at Khuman Lampak.

Career

• After her marriage, Kom took a short hiatus from boxing. After giving birth to her first child, Kom started training once again. She won a silver medal at the 2008 Asian Women's Boxing Championship in India and a fourth successive gold medal at the 2008 AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships in China, followed by a gold medal at the 2009 Asian Indoor Games in Vietnam.
• In 2010, Kom won the gold medal at the Asian Women's Boxing Championship in Kazakhstan, and at the 2010 AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships in Barbados, her fifth consecutive gold at the championship. 
• In the 2010 Asian Games, she competed in the 51 kg class and won a bronze medal. In 2011, she won gold in the 48 kg class at the Asian Women's Cup in China.
• At the 2012 AIBA Women's World Boxing Championship, Kom was competing not just for the championship itself but also for a place at the 2012 London Olympics in London, the first time women's boxing had featured as an Olympic sport. She was defeated in the 51 kg quarter-finals by Nicola Adams of the UK.
• In 2020 Summer Olympics she fought against the Rio Olympics bronze medalist Colombian boxer Ingrit Valencia. As the match ended, the commentator announced the winner on points by split decision.
• On 1 October 2014, Kom won her first gold medal in the boxing at the 2014 Asian Games, held in Incheon, South Korea, by beating Kazakhstan's Zhaina Shekerbekova in the flyweight (51 kg) summit clash.
• In October 2019, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) named Kom as a female representative of boxing's athlete ambassadors group for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
• In May 2021, Mary Kom won her 7th medal at the Asian Championships but lost the women's 51kg final on Sunday to Nazym Kazaibay. Kom won her first medal at the tournament in 2003 .
• In the Asian Boxing Olympic Qualifying rounds held in August 2021, Kom lost to China's Chang Yuan in a semi-final.

Super Fight League

• Kom appeared on the final episode of the Super Fight League's mixed martial arts reality show – SFL Challengers. During this time Kom was in talks with owners Raj Kundra and Sanjay Dutt to work with the SFL in some manner other than being a fighter.
• On 24 September 2012, the Super Fight League announced that Kom will serve as the SFL's brand ambassador.

Achievements

International Titles
Year	Place	Weight	Competition	Location
2001		48	AIBA Women's World Championships	Scranton, Pennsylvania, USA
2002		45	AIBA Women's World Championships	Antalya, Turkey
2002		45	Witch Cup	Pécs, Hungary
2003		46	Asian Women's Championships	Hisar, India
2004		41	Women's World Cup	Tønsberg, Norway
2005		46	Asian Women's Championships	Kaohsiung, Taiwan
2005		46	AIBA Women's World Championships	Podolsk, Russia
2006		46	AIBA Women's World Championships	New Delhi, India
2006		46	Venus Women's Box Cup	Vejle, Denmark
2008		46	AIBA Women's World Championships	Ningbo, China
2008		46	Asian Women's Championships	Guwahati, India
2009		46	Asian Indoor Games	Hanoi, Vietnam
2010		48	AIBA Women's World Championships	Bridgetown, Barbados
2010		46	Asian Women's Championships	Astana, Kazakhstan
2010		51	Asian Games	Guangzhou, China
2011		48	Asian Women's Cup	Haikou, China
2012		41	Asian Women's Championships	Ulan Bator, Mongolia
2012		51	Summer Olympics	London, United Kingdom
2014		51	Asian Games	Incheon, South Korea
2017		48	Asian Women's Championships	Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
2018		45–48	Commonwealth Games	Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia
2018		45–48	AIBA Women's World Championships	New Delhi, India
2019		51	2019 AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships	Ulan-Ude, Russia

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 20046th Sr WWBC, Jamshedpur 29 November-3.12.2005
• 10th WNBC, Jamshedpur lost QF by 1–4 on 5 October 2009

Media and popular culture

• Her autobiography, Unbreakable, was co-authored by Dina Serto and published by HarperCollins in late 2013. An excerpt from this biography has been given as a prose lesson in Samacheer Kalvi English textbook for 11th standard.[citation needed]
• Priyanka Chopra portrayed Kom in Mary Kom, a 2014 Hindi language biographical film about her life. The movie is directed by Omung Kumar and was released on 5 September 2014.
• The Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls, a children's book which features short stories about female role models to children, includes an entry on Mary Kom.
• Kom also features in the 2016 documentary With This Ring, which follows the experiences of India's women's boxing team across the course of six years from 2006 - 2012.

Personal life

• Kom is married to the footballer Karung Onkholer (Onler). Kom first met her husband in 2000 after her luggage was stolen while travelling by train to Bangalore. In New Delhi while on her way to the National Games in Punjab she met Onkholer who was studying law at Delhi University. Onkholer was the president of the North East students body and helped Kom. They became friends and thereafter began dating each other. After four years they were married in 2005.
• Together they have three sons, twins born in 2007, and another son born in 2013. In 2018, Kom and her husband adopted a girl named Merilyn.

Association with social causes

• Kom is an animal rights activist, and supporter of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India, starring in an ad to call for an end to the use of elephants in circuses. "Circuses are cruel places for animals where they are beaten and tortured. As a mother, I can imagine what animals go through when their children are taken away from them to forcefully perform in circuses. It's sad," Kom has been quoted in the media.
• Kom has also backed PETA India's humane education campaign, Compassionate Citizen. She has written a letter to the education ministers of states and union territories across India requesting that the programme be incorporated into official school curriculums. In an interview in the Times of India she was quoted as saying, "One of the best ways to knock out cruelty to animals is to teach compassion to young people. Animals need us in their corner. With violence seemingly all around us, it is more important than ever that we teach lessons of respect and kindness in the classroom."