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“We don’t learn so much after winning as compared to losing.”
That was Indian boxer Simranjit Kaur after she lost the final bout of the 60kg weight category at the recently concluded Asian-Oceanian Boxing Olympic Qualifiers in Jordan. She settled for a silver, but more importantly, assured herself of a spot at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Not new to international success, Simranjit began her career with a bronze medal win at the Youth World Championship in Albena in Bulgaria in 2013. Her next big break came five years later in 2018 when she won her first international gold at the Ahmet Comert International Boxing Tournament in Istanbul, Turkey.
Since then, the boxer from Ludhiana has never looked back. In fact, for a place in the Olympic qualifiers, she went past veteran Indian boxer and former Olympian Sarita Devi at the trials held in the national capital last December.
But boxing was never something Simranjit aspired to do. In fact, she hated boxing while growing up and was afraid to go anywhere near the ring. The fact that her elder sister and her two brothers were already into boxing meant that little Simranjit was also pushed into it.
But the turning point came in 2010 when boxer Vijender Singh visited her village. Vijender had just won bronze at the Beijing Olympics and was the first Indian boxer to win a medal at the Olympics.
In the next two years, Simranjit left her mark nationally, winning bronze at the Junior Women National Boxing Championship in 2011. The next year, she bettered her performance to win a silver at the same competition, along with a bronze at the Inter-Zonal Women National Boxing Championship.
In her early days, Simranjit used to compete in the 48 kg category but slowly she moved onto the 64 kg category, where she tasted most of her international success.
But it was always the Olympics that mattered most for the Punjab boxer and thus she decided to move to the 60 kg category, since 64 kg wasn’t an Olympic weight category.
Despite all the successes inside the ring, Simranjit never had it easy outside the ring. But it was her mother’s support that eased the pressure for her. If her siblings pushed her into boxing and Vijender Singh inspired her, it was her mother Rajpal Kaur who kept Simranjit going.
After her father’s death in 2018, Simranjit’s family went through a financial crisis. But Rajpal Kaur never let the financial hit get in the way of her daughter’s boxing dream.
For Simranjit, life has come full circle in this one week. After her father’s death in 2018, she had approached the Punjab government for a job to help her family meet ends. But despite her achievements in the boxing world, she remained jobless. Though, later, she was assured of financial aid earlier this year. And on Monday, it was the same Punjab government which not only felicitated her but also promised her a job if she lands a medal at the Tokyo Olympics, according to the TOI interview.
That just gives Simranjit just another reason to shine bright at the Tokyo Olympics.
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