Asian Games 2026: Parveen Hooda and the art of golden redemption ‘with interest’

Parveen Hooda captured a gold medal at the Asian Games 2026 in Nagoya, rallying from a tense moment to defeat World No.1 Chen Nien Chen by a narrow split decision and sealing a comeback story rooted in personal tragedy and perseverance.  | Photo Credit: REUTERS

Parveen Hooda holds her Asian Games gold medal tightly with both hands. She knows how hard she has worked to get it. On Friday evening at the Nishio City General Gymnasium in southeast Nagoya, she bit down on her gum shield and turned around a fight that was threatening to fall apart to beat World number 1 and Olympic bronze medallist Chen Nien Chen by a narrow split decision.

Between the moment she ducked out of the ropes on the ring in Nagoya and when she stepped out onto the podium and had the gold lowered around her neck, she had already spoken to her parents on the phone. “We were mostly crying,” she said later, her eyes still moist.

𝗙𝗢𝗨𝗚𝗛𝗧 𝗟𝗜𝗞𝗘 𝗪𝗔𝗥𝗥𝗜𝗢𝗥𝗦, 𝗖𝗘𝗟𝗘𝗕𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗗 𝗟𝗜𝗞𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗠𝗣𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗦! 🫶

Parveen Hooda takes the 3-2 split decision in a closely fought final, but the smiles and mutual respect between both boxers steal the show. 🤩

Watch the 20th Asian Games Aichi-Nagoya… pic.twitter.com/uapjDXkTUn

— Sony Sports Network (@SonySportsNetwk) October 2, 2026

When she returns home to Rohtak in Haryana, this gold medal is getting framed to take prime position on her living room wall.

There’s another Asiad bronze medal from Hangzhou already sitting on that same wall, but it doesn’t belong to her anymore. Six months after the Hangzhou games, Parveen was told it wasn’t hers anymore.

She never actually failed a test. But she had not filled out the online form where she had to update testers on her whereabouts, so they could find her should they want to carry out a surprise test.

The day she won the bronze in Hangzhou — which also earned her a quota for the Paris Olympics — an unusual email notification popped up on Parveen’s phone. She normally didn’t pay attention to emails, but this was different. It was from the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA).

ALSO READ | Two gold medals, 14 hours and then a miss: Chikitha Taniparthi’s Asian Games journey

The mail said she had failed to provide details of her whereabouts for a third time and that a suspension was coming. More gravely, her Olympic quota was to be forfeited.

“I first didn’t believe it. How could I be suspended? I’ve given so many dope tests in the past year. I have the papers. I’ve always been in the national camp. Where else did they need to look for me? This has to be some mistake,” she recalled.

Parveen showed her physio the email, who quickly understood the seriousness of the situation. The matter was pursued, b ut it came to nothing. It was on Parveen to update her location at all times.

It didn’t matter that Parveen, then 23, was juggling all these different balls. Even as she was preparing for the Asian Games, she was simultaneously dealing with her father, Lakhpat Hooda’s throat cancer diagnosis.

When Parveen first found out about her father’s condition, she withdrew the funds from the prize money she had won for clinching gold and bronze at the Asian Championships and World Championships respectively. She shuttled between her training canmp in Patiala to Rohtak every weekend, handling her father’s treatment alongside her own routines as a boxer.

“So much was going on that it just didn’t occur to me how serious the other issue was. I had left my father in the hospital when I went to Hangzhou for the Asian Games. I remember crying as I left him. I had worked so hard to get that medal and then was asked to return it,” she reminisced.

Parveen kept the adverse turn of events a secret for as long as could, hoping against hope that things would turn out differently.

“People were congratulating me but I felt this sick feeling that I wasn’t actually going to go to the Olympics.”

She eventually received a backdated two-year ban. The Olympic dream was over.

Her parents, despite struggling to deal with Lakhpat’s illness, tried to support Parveen to the best of their abilities. They always had.

Lakhpat had never been in the best of health. When Parveen was young, he had dealt with a heart condition. Despite that, he was one of her biggest supporters.

ALSO READ | How a knee injury sent Nitesh Siwach from the akhara to Greco-Roman glory

Parveen hails from Rurki, a village some 15 kilometers from Rohtak in Haryana. Women there weren’t expected to play sports. Alcoholism and drug-related issues were rampant. It was only in 2012 that the sarpanch (village head) decided to try curbing these vices by opening a sports academy.

Boxing was one of the disciplines taught. Without much societal support, few girls participated. Parveen, then 11, was one of them.

“She saw that other kids were going there, and she wanted to go as well. My husband wasn’t sure because she was so small and he was afraid she would get hurt. But she went quietly by herself,” her mother Neelam told Sportstar.

Eventually, after the sarpanch Sudhir Hooda spoke to the family, Lakhpat came around.

Parveen lost her 2026 Glasgow CWG quarterfinal to England’s Sacha Hickey on a split decision and returned without a medal. | Photo Credit: PTI

When Parveen won a state medal and then competed nationally within the first year of starting to train, Lakhpat distributed sweets in the neighbourhood. With just three bigha (approx. 1.8 acres) of land, the family never had much money, but Lakhpat made sure Parveen got as much nutrition as he could afford.

“We couldn’t afford fruit and juice, but we had a buffalo, so we always made sure that Parveen got milk and lassi before she went to train,” she added.

Neelam preferred looking at the positives. It’s something Parveen remembers from the harrowing weeks after the Hangzhou Games.

“When I got my suspension, I was also carrying a shoulder injury. When she saw me, she was worried about my condition. I said, ‘Mummy, I am going to miss the Olympics!’ But she kept insisting that at least I could recover from my injury. She tried to make me think it was not all that bad,” Parveen recalled.

It was, though. Parveen remembers watching the Olympics on TV, another girl going where she was supposed to.

“It was hard. I cried a lot at that time.”

When enough tears were shed, Parveen knew she needed to restart.

“With what had happened to me, I was very low mentally. I knew I had to start from zero. But I knew that if I didn’t come back, I would have to live with the regret my entire life that I messed up my whole career because of a stupid mistake and that would be the only thing anyone knew about me. I decided to make my comeback. Byaj ke saath sab kuch lungi (I’m going to take everything back with interest).” she said.

Not everyone believed in her.

“A lot of people told me I was finished. When you are returning from nothing, you have to do twice as much work to get back to where you were.”

She gritted her teeth and dug in.

ALSO READ | Kumkum Mohod’s golden 10: How India stunned Korea to win Asian Games archery gold

“I knew I was out for two years, so I first focussed on getting my father the medical treatment he needed. When I was not training, I was able to properly take care of him. Luckily, now he is in full remission,” Parveen exclaimed.

With things stable on the family front, she dove into training, making her way back to the national camp. Just as things looked promising, another setback arrived.

Parveen and her opponent in the final, Taiwan’s Chen Nien-chin, shared a hug after the gold medal match which saw the former emerge triumphant. | Photo Credit: AP

On returning from the 2025 World Cup, where she had won gold, Parveen heard the news that her cousin had passed away.

“It happened just a few days before the boxing nationals. I was so disturbed that I skipped the tournament.”

The next year she lost in the trials meant to select a team for the Asian Championships.

When two boxers — Jaismine Lamboriya in the 60kg category and Priya Ghanghas in the women’s 57kg division reached the final of that tournament — Parveen was in trouble.

“The federation had decided that boxers who won gold or silver at the Asian Championships would be automatically picked for the Commonwealth Games.”

Parveen, who had always fought in the women’s 60kg division, would now have to fight in the women’s 65kg category if she had to compete at the Glasgow Games. She made the move and won the selection trials but was clearly small for her division and returned empty-handed.

It was a result that made her doubt her prospects for the Asian Games.

“I saw that three of the fighters at the Asian Games had beaten the girl I had lost to in the Commonwealth Games. I didn’t think I had too much chance, honestly.”

But Parveen put in the work. “I worked with a nutritionist. I increased my protein intake. I’m still not as strong as I need to be in my weight class but I’m stronger than I was before.”

At the Asian Games, Parveen, who had no great expectations from her campaign, would eventually upset the odds. She beat China’s Li Shu in the semifinals after beating Navbakhor Khamidova of Uzbekistan in the quarterfinals.

The finals, though, were expected to be a tougher challenge against Chen Nien-chin, an opponent who has previously won World and Asian titles to go with her Olympic bronze. Parveen, though, boxed exactly to plan. She took the first round boxing from range and scoring clear punches. The second went the way of the Taiwan boxer as the Indian was caught as she tried to come in.

Ahead of the third round, Parveen willed herself to turn things around.

“I was trying to find motivation, so I told myself, ‘Come on, Deputy Director Parveen Hooda! I have heard that the Haryana Government makes Asian Games gold medallists Deputy Director of the Sports Department and that’s a job I really wanted,” she said after the final.

Rationale aside, it worked. Parveen took the third round on a narrow 3-2 split decision, winning the bout with the same margin.

Whatever the rationale, the fact is Parveen was able to take the third round on a narrow 3-2 split decision, winning the bout by the same margin.

The gold medal on her neck now is a great end to a story that began in tragedy but Parveen wouldn’t have it any other way.

“It’s my second journey to a medal, but it’s a better journey. When you start from zero, you are a lot tougher because you are making the same journey all over again just to get to the same point. I think I’m a lot more mature mentally than before. I used to depend on other people to do things for me. I know that I have to be a lot more careful now. I can’t depend on these people,” she explained.

The first thing Parveen said she did when she checked into her hotel room in Nagoya was to fill out her whereabouts form. “I do this without fail wherever I go. I just don’t take a chance anymore. I am not planning on losing this medal.”

While this gold will take its place alongside the bronze she doesn’t actually own, Parveen said she’s keeping another space vacant.

“The last time I won the Asian Games bronze, I also qualified for the Olympics, but I wasn’t able to go. But I will do everything in my power now to make that a reality. I am keeping that space for a third medal which will be the most special one.”