PANAJI: Four-time world champion MC Mary Kom is presently dreaming of Olympics. The Manipuri is pinning her hopes on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) including women's boxing at the 2012 London Games.
The IOC's executive board will take a decision on August 13. However, if women's boxing does not get IOC's nod for the Olympics, Mary Kom says she will hang up her gloves.
Mary Kom has not just been a boxer but a fighter all her life - in the ring and outside it too - which has earned her the tag of 'Magnificent Mary'.
Though she is home for a short reunion with her family to celebrate the second birthday of her twin sons on August 5, there is no vacation from boxing. She has been busy training her 20 students at home. She adds, "If all goes well, some of my students could be participating with me in the forthcoming Nationals."
Mary Kom will return to the boxing camp in Bhopal. The champion boxer confesses that her training duration is not the same after her Cesarean as she suffers from back aches. However, she insists that her punches still have the same power.
"I am confident of a gold in the Olympics if that happens. I have done that in World Championship and the Olympics will be no different," she said.
"If I cannot win an Olympic medal, I will train my students to win one for India."
Her fight will not be over with the Khel Ratna. "It's just started,' she says.
QnA: Is the sports ministry of India doing enough to encourage and train athletes?