Boxing Her Way to Unprecedented Glory … Lovlina Borgohain

In 2020, she became the sixth person from Assam to receive the coveted Arjuna Award. Borgohain hails from the Golaghat district of Assam. Her parents are Tiken and Mamoni Borgohain. Her father Tiken is a small-scale businessman and he had struggled financially to support his daughter's ambition. A former Muay Thai practitioner, Lovlina, who is the youngest of three sister-siblings, got interested in boxing after seeing her twin sisters; Licha and Lima take up kickboxing. Eventually she followed the same trail. 

Lovlina Borgohain born on 2nd October 1997 is an Indian boxer who has fetched almost unprecedented glory to Assam. She won a Bronze Medal at the 2020 Olympic Games in the women's welterweight event, to become the third Indian boxer to win a medal at the Olympics. She won a Bronze Medal at the 2018 AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships and the 2019 AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships too. Incidentally, Borgohain is the first female athlete and the second boxer from Assam to represent the state in the Olympics.

In 2020, she became the sixth person from Assam to receive the coveted Arjuna Award. Borgohain hails from the Golaghat district of Assam. Her parents are Tiken and Mamoni Borgohain. Her father Tiken is a small-scale businessman and struggled financially to support his daughter's ambition. A former Muay Thai practitioner, Lovlina, as the youngest of three sister-siblings, got interested in boxing after seeing her twin sisters; Licha and Lima take up kickboxing. Eventually she followed the same trail. The Sports Authority of India had held trials at her school 'Barpathar Girls High School', where Borgohain had participated. She was noticed and selected by renowned Coach Padum Chandra Bodo at the SAI STC Guwahati from 2012 to learn the basics of boxing. Under his guidance she became an excellent boxer. She was later coached by Sandhya Gurung. She won a Gold Medal at the 1st India Open International Boxing Tournament in New Delhi and a Silver Medal at the 2nd India Open International Boxing Tournament in Guwahati.

Needless to say Borgohain's biggest break came when she was selected to participate in the 2018 Commonwealth Games welterweight boxing category. However, her announcement was the subject of controversy after it was found out that she hadn't received any official intimation about her selection. She found out about her selection only after the story broke at a major media outlet. At the Commonwealth Games, she lost to Sandy Ryan from the UK in the quarterfinals. Sandy Ryan eventually went on to win Gold in that category.

Her selection in the 2018 Commonwealth Games was attributed to her success at the inaugural India Open – an international boxing championship held in February 2018 – where she had won a Gold Medal in the welterweight category. She had also won the Bronze Medal at the Asian Boxing Championships in Vietnam in November 2017. She also bagged the Bronze Medal at the President's Cup held in Astana in June 2017.

She later won a Silver Medal at the Ulaanbaatar Cup held in Mongolia in June 2018 and a Bronze Medal at the 13th International Silesian Championship held at Poland in September 2018.

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