(REUTERS) – M. C. Mary Kom’s Commonwealth Games role will be confined to promoting the event as one of its six ambassadors and the five-time world champion boxer is not liking the idea of staying away from the ring.
“It would have been great to have women boxing in the Delhi Games. It’s there in 2012 London Olympics but I guess we would have to wait,” the boxer from India’s north-eastern state of Manipur told Reuters yesterday.
All five fellow Games ambassadors – male boxer Vijender Singh, shooters Abhinav Bindra and Samaresh Jung, wrestler Sushil Kumar and shuttler Saina Nehwal – will be in action in the October 3-14 Games.
Hailing from one of India’s worst insurgency-hit states, juggling motherhood and boxing while collecting five world championship medal — few Indian athletes have overcome greater odds than Mary Kom.
The frail-looking mother of two has stormed the male bastion of Indian boxing, inspired new dreams in her state which continues to suffer from insurgency and helped push for women’s boxing included in the 2012 London Olympic Games.
“It really feels good to see the changes,” said the 27-year-old, who won her fifth world championship in Barbados earlier this month.
“Women’s boxing has grown in stature and I’m happy I could play my role.”

OLYMPIC PUSH
International Boxing Association (AIBA) president Ching-Kuo Wu last year told Indian reporters Mary Kom’s success had strengthened the case for women’s boxing for Olympic inclusion.
“An Olympic gold is what I’m longing for,” said the boxer, who, in her early days, lied to her sceptical parents to keep her boxing ambitions alive.
“They were dead against the idea, so I never told them anything about it. They feared a cut or scar on the face would jeopardise my marriage prospects.
“Everything went well until a newspaper published my photo after I had won a state championship and I could not fool them anymore,” she said.
Her parents eventually relented but it is her husband K. Onler Kom’s steady support that keeps her going.
“It’s not easy for a mother of two to pursue boxing and nothing could have been possible without my husband’s support.
“I have heard (India’s Olympic bronze medallist boxer) Vijender calling me the Kim Clijsters of Indian boxing. I’m amused.”