[dropcap]O[/dropcap]ne can imagine the tension Mary Kom must be experiencing in the run up to the Rio Olympics. In fact, it is going to be the last performance of the celebrated Indian pugilist. She has announced she will quit after the Rio event. Situation compulsion has been the factor for Mary Kom’s decision. She is 32 now and married with three children.
The Rio event is going to be an uphill task for the pugilist not because of the toughness of her opponents. It has more to do with the mental factor. She is an Olympic bronze medalist. She was confident of winning a gold medal in the London games in 2012 but things had turned otherwise. Though Mary had settled for a bronze the euphoria in the country, if not world-wide, was so immense. While floating in cloud nine Mary Kom clinched a gold medal in the 2014 Asian Games which had helped the upward spiral of her fame. What more? Amid these celebrations came a box office movie on her life story in which one of the reigning Bollywood queens Priyanka Chopra took the boxer’s role. Today every elite group wants Mary to be in their event or party.Her popularity is indeed a great burden for Mary Kom. Should the campaign of the 2016 Rio Olympics do not go her way all her feathers will be shed overnight.
She realized this. She also realized from early stage of her career that she should not allow her fame to go into her head. That can prove fatal.
Magnificient Mary is indeed ‘a giant killer’ in the boxing ring. But one can feel the tension building up “inside her”. This will be one event that is going to either concretise her international personality status or otherwise.
