Kom rubbishes retirement talk, dreams of Olympic gold
Calgary votes to keep 2026 Games bid process alive
NEW DELHI, April 17, (Agencies): India’s best-ever boxer Mary Kom said Tuesday she has no plans to retire and is determined to defy her critics by winning an elusive Olympic gold.
Kom, 35, won gold on debut at the Commonwealth Games in Australia last week, complementing a trophy cabinet packed with five amateur world championship titles and an Olympic bronze from London 2012.
But India’s most accomplished pugilist, feted at home as “Magnificent Mary”, says the best is yet to come and has rubbished suggestions she could be close to hanging up the gloves.
“I have never talked about retirement, they were just rumours. Even I was shocked when I heard about my retirement,” Kom told reporters in New Delhi as India’s boxing team returned from the Gold Coast with three gold, three silver and three bronze medals.
“An Olympic Gold is what I am still dreaming.”
Kom was devastated to miss out on a wildcard entry for the Rio 2016 Olympics and said she was aiming for Olympic gold in Tokyo 2020.
The mother-of-three won a record fifth Asian women’s championship title in November last year — defying critics who suggested Kom was approaching retirement age.
“Who said my age is a factor? Come up and I will show what I can do,” she said in jest when asked about boxing in her midthirties.
“This (age issue) should be taken out of the mind. I will know when my body will not allow me to carry on.”
Also: TORONTO: Calgary will continue to explore a potential bid for the 2026 Winter Olympics after city councillors in the western Canadian city voted on Monday to keep the process alive.
The 15-member council voted 9-6 in favour of continuing the bid process, which will be overseen by a sub-committee made up of four councillors and the mayor.
The vote, which comes at a time when many cities have pulled out of Olympics bids over concerns about huge costs, follows an announcement last month that the governments of Canada and the province of Alberta supported the creation of a bid corporation.