This gold medal has a lot more value for me, says boxer Parveen Hooda

Mumbai: Parveen Hooda's little diary, her confidant through thick and thin of medal-winning highs and suspension-serving lows, was put to use again in Aichi the night before her Asian Games final bout.

"I wrote that the dream has come true. Thank you, God," Parveen gave out an extract. "Now, we have to go out there and get the gold."

Which she did, restoring her scrapped medal while upgrading the colour from Hangzhou three years ago.

Parveen has medals aplenty at the national and international stage, from World Championships to World Cups to Asian Championships. The 2026 Asian Games gold in 65kg division, won after she was stripped of the 2023 bronze medal for a whereabouts failure ban, is the most prized.

"Medals toh pehle bhi kaafi aaye hai (I've won a lot of medals before). But this medal, after all the struggles I’ve been through, has a lot more value for me," Parveen told HT.

The boxer from Haryana's Rurki got back to training on Monday, after days of revelling in the success of being only the third Indian woman boxer to win an Asian Games gold. "It's been so long that I've had a chance to celebrate like this."

Plenty of people celebrated along with her. Some of them had questioned what she had given away (the 2023 Asian Games bronze) and missed (an Olympic shot for 2024 Paris) while wondering if any of it could ever come back.

"Now, those same people are saying that we prayed for you and we knew you could do it!" Parveen said, laughing.

The 26-year-old herself wasn't sure of this golden redemption. Returning and moving up from 57kg to 65kg presented its challenges, and not returning with a medal from the Commonwealth Games (CWG) brought with it plenty of doubt going to Aichi-Nagoya. "I did not have a lot of belief. Just weeks before, I couldn't perform well at the CWG. And I felt really bad."

Especially since every other Indian woman boxer had a medal to flaunt in Glasgow. "Everyone had worked hard for it, so did I – maybe even a little extra since I had to gain a lot of weight for the new category," said Parveen. "But I knew I didn't have a lot of time to drool over it, and thought if I keep sitting on this, even the Asian Games won't go well."

And so the pugilist got down to work. Technical and physical improvements were made, her Glasgow split decision defeat to Sacha Hickey was analysed in detail with women’s team coach Santiago Nieva, and a mindset shift of not being desperate to win set in motion. The biggest change, however, was in trusting her strengths. It came to the fore against reigning Asian Championships gold medallist Chen Nien-chin in the final.

"In the CWG bout, if I had played my natural game, it would have gone in my favour. Since this was a new weight category for me, I was analysing my opponent a bit too much. I was thus not able to use my own strengths. At the Asian Games, I decided that I will play to my strengths, no matter the kind of opponent and game. I believed and backed my own game."

For a long time in serving her backdated months-long suspension, Parveen’s belief had dwindled. “I was so far away from such platforms. If you stay away from something for long, you don't know how it will be once you return.”

Yet, through all that uncertainty and negativity, she did not throw in the towel, or not turn up to train. That has been her biggest lesson from this whirlwind phase.

“Patience. That is the key,” she said. “If you are going through really bad times, good times are bound to be around the corner. As long as you stay true to your dedication, work, and remain consistent. Had I stopped training during that phase, I would have lost mentally. Lage rehna zaroori hai (you have to keep at it).”

Parveen wants to keep at it, with next year's World Championships in focus. New threats like Russia's European champion Azaliia Amineva are emerging in a category that still feels a bit new to her. “There’s still a lot of work to do,” said Parveen.