Indian female boxer MC Mary Kom, or fondly called ‘Magnificent Mary’, started her 2020 Tokyo Olympic campaign in the Women’s Fly (48kg-51kg) Preliminary Round of 32 with a win over Dominica’s Miguelina Hernandez. She was announced the winner by split decision.

Next up, she will face Colombian third seed Ingrit Lorena Victoria Valencia.

Valencia is the 2016 Olympic bronze-medallist and also the Pan American Games champion.

Kom’s rags-to-riches story became the stuff of legend when she won a bronze medal at the 2012 London Games, the first time women’s boxing was an Olympic event.

“Magnificent Mary”, as the national treasure is known, repaid them when she won a record sixth world title in 2018.

“Will step into the ring to fight for the gold, to make us all proud again,” Kom, a mother of four, said on Twitter.

“Tokyo will be my last Olympics. Age matters here. I am 38 now, going on 39. Four more years is a long time,” she had said before the Olympics.

Kom said she was “pretty sure I won’t be allowed to even if I am willing to carry on till Paris 2024″.

Kom, who hails from a poor village in the northeastern state of Manipur, won a silver at the inaugural women’s world championships in 2001, kickstarting her international career.

She went on to win gold at each of the next five world championships and clinched her sixth title in 2018.

The diminutive fighter — only 1.58 metres (5 feet two inches) tall — broke gender stereotypes just by breaking into the male-dominated sport and then achieved international success while managing her role as a mother.

Kom was the star of the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony in Delhi in 2010 even though women’s boxing was still excluded.

The veteran boxer said the Olympics had changed her career trajectory.

“Becoming an Olympian and winning the bronze changed my life too,” she said. “It also inspired many women to take up sport, especially boxing. I feel proud.

“I want more girls to come out and fight. I hope there are no restrictions on them to come out and fight for themselves and their country.”

Kom became the first Indian woman boxer to win a gold medal at the Asian Games, in 2014, and also triumphed at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

She moved from her preferred 48kg category to 51kg in pursuit of Olympic glory — there were just three weight divisions in women’s boxing in 2012.

In London, just 12 boxers took part in the flyweight event but the competition has intensified and there are five rounds in Tokyo.

Kom has her work cut out but she has the weight of a nation behind her.