Manipur’s six-time women boxing world champion Chungneijang Mary Kom Hmantge, popularly known as MC Mary Kom turned 38-year-old this March. Since the inception of women’s boxing championships in the year 2001, Mary Kom has won a medal at each of the eight editions of the competition.

In 2002, when Mary Kom was 19-year-old, she won a gold medal against North Korea’s Jang Song Ae in the women’s 45kg category. She became the first Indian woman to win a gold medal at the AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championship.

Also read| Indian boxer Mary Kom starts Tokyo Olympics campaign with a win

Through her early twenties, Kom became unbeatable in the pinweight division. She won World Championships at the 2005 – 2010 editions. She took a two-year break from 2006-2008 following the birth of twin children. She returned to the ring in 2008, at the age of 25, she won another medal at the World Championships.

After moving to the flyweight division, Kom won her fifth title in the 2010 championship. At the age of 29, Kom won her first Olympic bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics. By this time she had five gold medals at the World Championships. She created history by becoming the first Indian woman to win a medal in boxing.

Also read| Tokyo Olympics: PV Sindhu beats Ksenia Polikarpova in straight games

Kom took another break when she gave birth to her third child in 2013. She had to wait until 2018 to win another World Championships in New Delhi against Ukraine’s Hanna Okhota, which became her sixth title. By 2019, at 36-year-old, Mary Kom won her eighth world’s medal making her the only boxer in the world to have won eight medals.