Arundhati Choudhary: From Athlete to World Boxing Champion

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Fought For Sports - Now A World Boxing Champion - Arundhati Choudhary.

Arundhati Choudhary is a boxing champion from Kota, Rajasthan, and the first woman from the state to win a gold at the AIBA World Youth Boxing Championship in 2020.

Rajasthan has traditionally produced world-class shooters, archers, hoopsters, and horse polo players but now India's largest state is all set to acquire fame in boxing also due to Arundhati Choudhary.

Arundhati Choudhary became the first-ever female boxer from Rajasthan to win a gold medal in the AIBA Youth World Boxing Championships, and it's being seen as a stepping stone towards bigger international competitions like the Commonwealth Games, Asian Games, and even the Olympics.

The country's one of the significant educational hub, Kota has presented this female boxer who has already won AIBA Youth World Boxing Championship twice and steered Services (Indian Army) and created history in the senior women's national championship to bring medals for the first time in 88 years.

The Journey

Arundhati Choudhary comes from a wealthy family. Still, she and her parents had to undergo a formidable social obstruction before taking up boxing as a career.

She was excellent in her studies. She was also an excellent basketball player at the school level. Arundhati was also aggressive in attitude and used to fight with boys sometimes

Arundhati was passionate about sports but her father asked her not to continue with basketball assuming that Arundhati might have to face typical politics and would not be able to succeed.

Rather, her father advised her to take up boxing or wrestling according to her aggressive attitude. Arundhati was motivated by the examples of Mary Kom, Vijender Singh, and Phogat sisters and then Arundhati chose boxing as her career.

In 2017 Arundhati Choudhary started getting success as a boxer.

Career

Arundhati who represented the state in basketball, switched to boxing at age 15 and rose to stardom in a very short span — clinching the Rajasthan State Junior Sub-Junior Championship four years in a row starting 2016.

She won gold in the 60kg weight class at the Khelo India Youth Games three years consecutively beginning in 2017.

Further, Choudhary went on to win many national and international titles later including the 2017 Valeria Demyanova Memorial Tournament in Ukraine, the 7th Nations Cup in Serbia in 2018, the 2019 Esker All Female Boxing Cup in Ireland and the Adriatic Pearl tournament in Montenegro.

Before being allowed to take up the combat sport, her father wanted her to become an engineer as she was good at mathematics.

"I have always been No 1 at the junior level. So I wanted to maintain that. Somebody had once told me that it's easy to become a champion, but to maintain that status is very difficult. I also knew that there are big competitions coming up with the World Championships. So I was intent on giving my best," Arundhati said.

It's no surprise, her coach Ashok Gautam has been a big pillar in her career so far.

"The coach has played a big role in my life. He became a student of the sport, watching YouTube videos and learning from other sources. He taught himself and passed on what he has learned to me."

Arundhati, who likes to ride her bullet during her free time, hasn't looked back since, going on to medal at the international level in various meets.

The fact that she was voted the 'Best Asian Junior Women Boxer in 2018' meant she was on the right path. And the national title is just the beginning.

All the national winners have secured the World Championships berth but Arundhati could miss the flight. There are indications that Lovlina Borgohain, after a medal-winning performance during the Olympics, will be given a direct pass this time.

Knocking down prejudices

For a long time, the boxing world has been a male bastion. It was only in 2012 that women's boxing was officially recognized as an Olympic sport at the London Games.

Closer home, world champion Mary Kom had become a household name. But she was miles away from Arundhati's hometown, and there were no role models she could look up to in Rajasthan.

Once her father, Suresh saw his daughter's potential, he went all out in supporting her dream — from buying the best quality almonds to support her mental stamina to making sure she participated in tournaments without worrying about anything else.