Mangte Chungneijang "Mary" Kom[2] (born 24 November 1982)[1] is an Indian Olympic boxer, politician, and former Member of Rajya Sabha.

[6][7][8][9] Nicknamed Magnificent Mary, she was the only Indian female boxer to have qualified for the 2012 Summer Olympics, where she competed in the flyweight (51 kg) category and won a bronze medal.

[16] On 25 April 2016, the President of India nominated Kom as a member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian parliament.

[17] In March 2017, the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India, appointed Mary Kom along with Akhil Kumar as national observers for boxing.

[22][23] Mary Kom was born in Kagathei village, Moirang Lamkhai in the Churachandpur district of rural Manipur in India.

Kom grew up in humble surroundings, helping her parents with farm-related chores, going to school, and learning athletics initially and later boxing simultaneously.

It was at this juncture, Dingko Singh, a fellow Manipuri returned from the 1998 Bangkok Asian games with a gold medal.

[30] In an interview with the BBC, Meitei remembered her as a dedicated hardworking girl with a strong will power, who picked up the basics of boxing quickly.

[39][40] On 3 October 2010 she, along with Sanjay and Harshit Jain, had the honour of bearing the Queen's Baton in the opening ceremony run in the stadium for the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

She was the only Indian woman to qualify for the Olympic boxing event, with Laishram Sarita Devi narrowly missing a place in the 60 kg class.

[44] Kom's coach Charles Atkinson could not join her at the Olympic Village as he didn't possess an International Boxing Association (AIBA) 3 Star Certification, which is mandatory for accreditation.

[45] She had all her luggage and passport stolen on the way to the selection camp in Bangkok, Thailand for her first Asian Women's Boxing Championships.

[52][53][54] In recognition, the Manipur Government awarded her Rs 50 lakhs and two acres of land in a cabinet meeting held on 9 August 2012.

[58] On 1 October 2014, Kom won her first gold medal in the boxing at the 2014 Asian Games, held in Incheon, South Korea, by beating Kazakhstan's Zhaina Shekerbekova in the flyweight (51 kg) summit clash.

[62] In May 2021, Mary Kom won her 7th medal at the Asian Championships but lost the women's 51kg final on Sunday to Nazym Kazaibay.

[63] In the Asian Boxing Olympic Qualifying rounds held in August 2021, Kom lost to China's Chang Yuan in a semi-final.

[64] Kom appeared on the final episode of the Super Fight League's mixed martial arts reality show – SFL Challengers.

During this time Kom was in talks with owners Raj Kundra and Sanjay Dutt to work with the SFL in some manner other than being a fighter.

[89] Kom also features in the 2016 documentary With This Ring,[90] which follows the experiences of India's women's boxing team across a span of six years, from 2006 to 2012.

She has written a letter to the education ministers of states and union territories across India requesting that the programme be incorporated into official school curriculums.

In an interview in the Times of India she was quoted as saying, "One of the best ways to knock out cruelty to animals is to teach compassion to young people.