Boxing is a game of brave hearts. And gaining reputation at the international levels is not easy, leave aside national levels. It is somewhat easy to play boxing when one is still not married but returning to the game after marriage and having child is not easy at all, especially for women. It takes a lot of hard-work and dedication, perhaps double or triple times or even more hard-work than before one’s marriage. Domestic works, looking after child and official works besides practices are the combinations of huge challenge to a woman boxer Kavita Chahal. Yes, Kavita Chahal is a woman boxer who brought laurels to India many times.
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Kavita who started her playing career in kabaddi was inspired by her father Mr. Bhup Singh who was also a boxer. She was the only woman at her village Nimri to join this male dominated game. People were of the view that women should get married and look after child and family. But her father was very supportive and encouraged her a lot. She travelled 25kms along with her father from her home to the training location — the Bhiwani Boxing Club also known as the Mecca of boxing in India under the guidance of Dronacharya Awardee, Shri Jagdish Singh. Along with MC Mary Kom, Laishram Sarita and Vijender Singh, Kavita is also a leading figure in the world of women’s boxing. She ranked 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th in AIBA rankings.
Kavita is a 22 times national level championships gold medalist. She won senior women national boxing championship for 8 times. She has more gold medals than silver and bronze medals in her career of boxing. The World Police Games 2013 boxing champion won bronze medals in World Women Boxing Championships of 2010 and 2012 editions. She won silver and bronze medals for India at the 5th and 6th editions of Asian Women Boxing Championships respectively. The former world number 2 was awarded Arjuna Award in 2013 and became the first woman boxer from Haryana to get the award. The country’s best heavyweight pugilist is the only third woman boxer to receive the award as well in India. The Haryana State Government also honoured her with the highest sporting honour of the state Bhim Award in 2014.
She has got married to Mr. Sudhir Kumar. But she did not want stop her career after just marriage. She believes that she still has the capability to win further. Returning to the game especially for a mother is not an easy task. But she is a hard worker and she has her inspirer MC Mary Kom. There is one more to look at– Laishram Sarita Devi who made a comeback to competitive boxing to win an Asian Games medal after giving birth to her son.
Kavita Chahal was of the view that as Mary Kom has also been boxing even after having three kids, she could continue to boxing. So her confidence is still strong. And why not?, she should be strong both inside and outside! When two of the best mother-boxers MC Mary Kom and Laishram Sarita are around, she should be very confident.
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Like there is always a woman behind the success of every man, there is also a man behind the success of every woman. This has been proved. After giving berth to her son Viraj, she had to do official works and heavy boxing training for competitions and her husband supported well and she finally won two gold medals in two state level championships in Haryana.
Now as her weight category is included in Commonwealth Games in 2018, she wants to focus on her boxing. She wants to do boxing besides having family. Her targets are Asian and Commonwealth Games in 2018 and the Olympics in 2020.https://web.archive.org/web/20210412062158if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/pcXJvg184Ns?feature=oembed
Kavita may look MC Mary Kom as her inspiration, but she has already become an inspiration to other women boxers. There are three mother-boxers – MC Mary Kom , Laishram Sarita and Kavita Chahal. They are the only women boxers to receive Arjuna award. What a coincidence! Returning to the game of boxing after having a child is not an easy task. One needs a lot of hard-work, determination and dedication. And Kavita has all these qualities. We hope that she will make all proud like the way MC Mary Kom and Laishram Sarita. All the best to all the mother-boxers. All the best to Kavita.