Mary Kom Won Six World Boxing Titles and a Record Eight World Championship Medals, and Took Olympic Bronze at London 2012 as the First Indian Woman Boxer on an Olympic Podium

Mary Kom has won eight medals at the women’s world boxing championships, six of them gold, and the International Olympic Committee’s athlete page for her calls the total a record. Her Olympic medal is a bronze from London 2012, the first Olympic women’s boxing tournament. Olympedia, the Olympic results database, lists her as the third Indian woman to win an Olympic medal, and The Bridge says she was the only Indian woman boxer at those Games.

A start in Imphal at 15

Olympedia lists her birth as 1 March 1983 in Kangathei, in Churachanpur district of Manipur. The IOC says she came from a poor farming family and was drawn to boxing by Dingko Singh’s gold medal at the 1998 Asian Games in Bangkok. She left home at 15 to train at the Imphal Sports Academy and hid it at first from her father, a former wrestler. He found out when her photograph appeared in the newspapers after she became a state champion in 2000, the IOC says.

Eight world medals, in order

She was 18 at the first women’s world championships in 2001, held in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and won silver, the first of the eight medals, the IOC says. The first of her six titles came in Turkey in 2002, The Quint reports. The Olympic Museum’s profile lists the others up to 2010 as 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2010, which makes five golds by that year.

Scroll reports that she moved up a weight class after the fifth title, to 51 kg, to qualify for the London Olympics, because London’s three women’s classes did not include her old one. The Olympic Council of Asia describes her six golds and her silver as 48 kg results, and notes there is no 48 kg class for women at the Olympics.

The sixth title came on 24 November 2018 in New Delhi. At 35, she beat Ukraine’s Hanna Okhota in the 48 kg final, 5-0 on all five judges’ cards, according to both The Quint and AFP’s report in Gulf News. The win took her past Ireland’s Katie Taylor, who had five golds, and The Quint calls her the first woman to win six world titles. Scroll adds a qualification: Cuba’s Felix Savon has also won six world titles, in men’s heavyweight, so the record is shared with one man.

The Quint also notes how long the career had run: Okhota was six when Kom won her first title, and the final came 16 years after it and eight years after her fifth. Scroll says she had returned to the ring after giving birth twice. Two months after the Delhi final, AFP reported, she moved to the top of the world rankings.

The eighth medal followed in October 2019 at Ulan-Ude in Russia. Competing at 51 kg, the Olympic weight, she beat Colombia’s Ingrit Valencia 5-0 on 10 October to reach the semi-final and secure a medal. The Olympic Council of Asia says that win broke a tie with Savon and made her the only boxer, male or female, with eight world medals. She lost the semi-final 1-4 to Turkey’s Busenaz Cakiroglu and took bronze. India asked for a review of the decision, and the AIBA technical committee turned the request down, according to PTI’s report in ThePrint, which also notes the bronze was her first world medal at 51 kg. As of 5 November 2026, the IOC’s athlete page still describes eight world medals as a record.

London 2012: three weight classes, one Indian woman

Women’s boxing made its Olympic debut at London with three classes: flyweight (51 kg), lightweight (60 kg) and middleweight (75 kg), The Bridge says. Kom had fought at 46 kg and 48 kg for most of a decade, so she moved to 51 kg. The Bridge adds that her coach, Charles Atkinson, could not travel with her because he lacked the AIBA three-star certification needed for accreditation.

Her route to the podium, with scores from The Bridge:

• Round of 16: 19-14 over Karolina Michalczuk of Poland, which The Bridge calls the third women’s bout in Olympic history.
• Quarter-final: 15-6 over Maroua Rahali of Tunisia. Olympic boxing gives bronze to both beaten semi-finalists, so this win secured a medal.
• Semi-final: a 6-11 loss to Great Britain’s Nicola Adams.

Olympedia’s preview had named three likely gold medallists: China’s world champion Ren Cancan, Adams and Kom. It gave Adams two advantages, since she was a natural flyweight and fought before a home crowd. Adams won the final against Ren 16-7, a score that Olympedia and Sportskeeda both give. Kom shared bronze with Marlen Esparza of the United States. Olympedia lists her as the third Indian woman to win an Olympic medal, after Karnam Malleswari’s weightlifting bronze at Sydney 2000. The Bridge records that India’s six medals in London, two silver and four bronze, were its most at one Games. Olympedia also lists her as India’s flagbearer at the closing ceremony. Telangana Today describes Lovlina Borgohain as a Tokyo Olympic bronze medallist.

Gold at the Asian Games and the Commonwealth Games

Olympedia lists a bronze at the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou and gold at Incheon in 2014. AP’s report on the Incheon final, carried by Gulf News, says she beat Kazakhstan’s Zhaina Shekerbekova in the 51 kg final. When Borgohain won the 75 kg Asian Games boxing gold on 2 October 2026, Outlook India and Telangana Today both called her only the second Indian woman to do so after Kom in 2014, a result covered in tuput’s account of India at the 2026 Asian Games. PTI’s report in ThePrint adds that by 2019 she also held five Asian titles.

At the Commonwealth Games she won gold at Gold Coast on 14 April 2018, in the 48 kg class, in her first Commonwealth Games. She beat Northern Ireland’s Kristina O’Hara 5-0 in the final. The Quint calls it the first Indian woman’s boxing gold at the Commonwealth Games, and Olympedia lists the medal.

Honours, with the dates from the Gazette

The Gazette of India notifications of the Padma awards give the years without ambiguity:

• Padma Shri: the notification of 20 March 2006, which lists her in the sports category for Manipur.
• Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna: 2009, the Sports Authority of India’s list shows, shared that year with the boxer Vijender Singh and the wrestler Sushil Kumar.
• Padma Bhushan: the notification of 5 April 2013, which lists M. C. Mary Kom, sports, Manipur.
• Padma Vibhushan: the notification of 8 November 2021 conferring the awards for the year 2020.

Tokyo, the book and the film

At Tokyo 2020 she carried India’s flag at the opening ceremony, Olympedia records, and finished joint ninth in the 51 kg class. The IOC’s Olympic Museum profile says she founded and leads the Mary Kom-SAI Boxing Academy, which supports boxers from disadvantaged areas, and that she was appointed to the upper house of India’s Parliament in 2016.

The Olympic Museum says her autobiography, Unbreakable, was published in 2013. A biopic released in 2014 had Priyanka Chopra in the title role, according to AP.