India’s women’s middleweight boxer Pooja Rani (75kg) on Saturday will play China’s Li Qian in the quarter-final of the Tokyo Olympics. She defeated Algeria’s Ichrak Chaib in the previous match. With a dominant victory in her opening bout of her maiden Olympics, Rani promises a medal for India at the Tokyo Games. 

Hailing from the sport’s cradle of India, Nimriwali village of Haryana state’s Bhiwani district, Pooja Rani was the first Indian to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics. However, her Olympic journey has been one of many struggles. She battled a career-threatening shoulder injury, a burnt hand and lack of financial support before making it this far.

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Her police officer father did not want her to pursue the sport as he felt boxing was a sport meant for aggressive people.

“Maar lag jaegi (you will get hurt). That’s what my father said. He insisted that the sport was not meant for me because in his mind, boxing was pursued by aggressive people,” she had recalled in an interview to PTI detailing her journey.

In order to hide her injuries – sustained while boxing – from her parents, Pooja Rani would not return home until they were healed, Olympics.com states. It was Rani’s silver medal in the National Youth Boxing Championship in 2009 that helped her change the perception of her parents. 

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Rani was in the run for a spot in India’s 2016 squad for Rio. However, she burnt her right hand while bursting crackers during Diwali and the accident kept her away from the ring for more than six months. She did not participate in any competition for almost a year. She made a comeback in the Asian Championship and has been in fine form since then. In the 2019 Asian Championship, she won a gold medal.

“I don’t want to take names but people had bet on me that I would lose. Even in the semi-finals, they bet that I would lose to Kazakhstan (boxer),” she told Olympics.com.

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“After I won, I shut my critics. They were my own people and still they were doing this kind of things. So, zid thi, ki jeetna hai. (I was stubborn to win),” Olympics.com quoted Pooja Rani.

Coming to Tokyo, Rani defended her Asian Championship title in Dubai. She emerged as the only boxer to finish with a gold medal from the Indian contingent in the competition. Her exploits in the ring make her one of India’s brightest hopes for a medal at the multi-sport event.