New Delhi: Boxing champion Mary Kom has quashed news of her retirement. “I haven’t announced retirement yet and I have been misquoted. I will personally come in front of the media whenever I want to announce it,” she said on Thursday.
“I have gone through some media reports stating that I have announced retirement and this is not true. I was attending a school event in Dibrugarh on 24 January 2024 wherein I was motivating children and I said ‘I still have a hunger to achieve in sports but the age limit in the Olympics doesn’t allow me to participate though I can carry on with my sport,” ANI quoted the six-time world champion boxer.
“I am still focusing on my fitness and whenever I will announce retirement I will inform everyone,” she added.
ANI earlier reported Mary Kom’s retirement due to the International Boxing Association’s (IBA) rules. The IBA allows boxers to fight in the Olympics only till the age of 40.
“I have the hunger still but unfortunately because of the age limit it is over I cannot compete in any competition. I want to play more but I am being forced to quit (due to the age limit). I have to retire. I have achieved everything in my life,” ANI earlier quoted Mary as saying during an event.
Mary Kom is a trailblazing female boxer, the first to win six world titles and the first Indian woman to earn a gold medal in boxing at the 2014 Asian Games. She began her international career at 18, reaching the finals in her first world meet. Though she didn’t win then, she went on to secure World Championships in 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010 and 2018, and an Olympic bronze in 2012. After breaks for childbirth, Mary returned to win her sixth world title in 2018 and an eighth world medal in 2019, a record for any boxer.
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