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Faced difficulties early on because boxing is considered a male-dominated sport: Mary Kom
Mary said she wouldn’t be where she is had it not been for the challenges she faced en route to becoming a boxer.
India’s boxing sensation MC Mary Kom believes her mysterious foray into sports was something that was destined to happen. A six-time World Champion, Mary feels the situations she faced while growing up, opened a passage to sports and that she wouldn’t be where she is had it not been for the challenges she faced en route to becoming a boxer.
“I was always interested in sports but I never really knew the role of sports and its benefits,” Mary said in an online video interaction for Unacademy app on Wednesday. “I just loved playing with the boys in my village because girls never played. The situation in my childhood was totally different from what it is now, only boys would be playing outside.”
Mary, whose career was nicely portrayed in his biopic, revealed that even though took her time to understand the benefits of picking sports as a career, it wasn’t due to the perks she opted to enter Indian sports, more precisely, boxing.
“God chose me for sports, I think,” she said. “Because there can’t be any other reason that I would enter sports and end up spending my entire life in it. So I had never imagined that I would be making a career like this. Slowly I started understanding the benefits of sports, that if you do well in it, you get better job opportunities. If you excel in sports, you excel in life.”
One of the sternest challenges Mary faced while pursuing a career in boxing was that she had to convince herself she belonged to it; mostly because women making a career in boxing was not too common back in the day. Explaining how tough it was to find female partners to train with, Mary revealed had to be content training with male boxers.
“This sport is a male dominated one. It is mostly considered a man’s sport. So initially when I started boxing, it was very difficult. There would be one or two girls training apart from me so I had to train with boys. So all I want to say is that boxing is not a man’s sport. If men can play, then why can’t women play,” she said.
