Asian Games 2026: Lovlina Borgohain gave herself the best birthday gift by winning the Gold medal in the women's 75 kg Boxing final in Aichi-Nagoya. She joined the elite club of Mary Kom, becoming only the second Indian woman boxer to win an Asian Games gold. Winning several accolades at national and international levels, Lovlina's introduction to competitive boxing was, however, just accidental.
A fortunate encounter with the Indian Boxing coach Padum Boro during the Sports Authority of India (SAI) trials steered Lovlina Borgohain towards amateur boxing. A little stumble of fate made Lovlina a gold medal winner at the 2026 Asian Games, etching history.
Lovlina Repeats Mary Kom’s Historic Boxing Feat
With her 5-0 unanimous win over China’s Ziyi Bao in the women’s 75 kg final, Lovlina ended the 12-year drought for India in women's continental boxing. The last gold medal was won by Mary Kom in 2014 in Incheon, South Korea. Winning gold at the 2026 Asian Games made her step into the elite club as India’s most accomplished modern boxing icons.
Also Read: Asian Games 2026 Medal Tally: India Add Golds In Archery, Boxing; Check Latest Count And Rank
How She Started Boxing?
Hailing from a remote hamlet called Baromukhia in the Golaghat district of Assam, Lovlina battled several challenges, including poverty, to reach the top. As a teen, Lovlina took up Muay Thai – a form of kickboxing, inspired by elder sisters Licha and Lima.
At the age of 14, her formal boxing training started at the Netaji Subhas Regional Centre in Guwahati in 2012. Quickly, her performance repaid her coach's confidence. She won the junior national championship in 2012 and a silver at the 2013 Nation’s Women’s Junior Cup in Serbia.
Her major international medal came in the 2017 Asian Championship, where she won bronze. The win later got her selected in the Indian team for the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia.
Image Credit: Snapshots From X
From Setbacks To Asiad Gold
Lovlina's journey has been a relentless cycle of evolution and adaptation. Following her Olympic triumph at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, she faced a formidable challenge. She was shifted from 69kg to 75kg, a fierce competitive weight class.
This required a complete overhaul of her training regimen, physical conditioning, and ring strategy. In the 2024 Paris Olympics, she reached the women’s 75kg category quarter-finals but missed out on another Olympic medal.
Refusing to let failure dictate her life, Lovlina channeled her resilience into a fierce competitive reset. She threw herself into rigorous training within the 75 kg weight class and focused on sharpening her tactical execution and ring dominance. Celebrating her 29th birthday with a gold medal win over China's Bao Ziyi, she showed that "Fall seven times, stand up eight."