Asian Games gold best medal of my life, says Lovlina Borgohain

Lovlina Borgohain won the elusive gold medal in the women's 75kg boxing event at 2026 Asian Games. (PTI)

Getting punched in the head hasn’t worried Lovlina Borgohain for a while now; rather, her headspace over the past few years has caused an odd sense of displacement.

No Indian boxer barring Mary Kom has the kind of resume the Assamese boxer carried to the Asian Games. Lovlina added another notch to that comparison, becoming only the second Indian woman to win boxing gold at the Asian Games after Kom — a twelve-year wait between the two. The gold, though, came after mental battles that Lovlina has faced in the last two years.

The backpack of medals she has won got heavier and heavier until 2024, when the weight, simply, was too much to handle. Losses started to follow and take their toll. The 2025 World Championship brought along with it the final gong of a round lost – for a boxer who had three medals and was the defending champion in her weight category, Liverpool brought her world crashing down. Two full years filled with disappointment left her scarred.

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“A lot of things have to be faced when we come back after losing,” said Lovlina. Back in Delhi after her successful campaign in Nagoya, it was those difficult moments that she remembered with a gold medal around her neck. “Accepting it yourself is very difficult… when we have expectations from ourselves, and the result doesn’t come that way, it hurts a lot. Then somewhere that holds us back from moving forward,” added Lovlina.

Mindset shift

The way back to being herself started with a rethink. How she approached the sport had to be restructured. She began framing injuries and losses positively. In a way, Lovlina chose not to care about the result — and just made an attempt to enjoy the process. It led to a therapeutic lack of pressure as she went into her second-ever Asian Games.

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“First of all, I didn’t go into the Games with very high expectations. I had in mind that whatever the result is, I will accept it, but I have to give my best. So when gold came, maybe… I was not overly excited. Whatever happened, I accepted it. I felt it, I was enjoying it—throughout the game, I enjoyed it. Whether gold came or not, even then, this would have been the best Asian Games of my life,” admitted Lovlina.

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But a silver at the Commonwealth Games, a first for her, and now gold at the Asian Games have once again put her back on track. Part of that realignment came from changes she made. Rather than working hard, Lovlina now tends to work smart. Gone are the days when she preferred staying in camp and grinding out sparring sessions.

Lovlina chose not to care about the result — and just made an attempt to enjoy the process. (AP)

“When we play a competition, it’s not a matter of one or two days of hard work; it’s the whole year. I had faith that overworking myself shouldn’t be done. And the biggest thing I feel when we reach this stage, rather than pushing oneself too much, polishing oneself is more important. If you keep rubbing a diamond too much, it will get ruined,” says Lovlina.

The changes she brought to her mindset were also reflected during her semi-final match. Lovlina has been part of many multi-sport events for India, but this was the first time she won a gold medal. Usually, her campaign would end in the semi-finals or finals. But things felt different this time. Going up against the 70kg world champion Natalya Bogdanova was no longer as daunting.

“The semi-final match is very important because — either we have to be satisfied with bronze or we can try to win gold. It stays in your mind because within us, we know whether we could have done better or not. I didn’t want that feeling this time,” said Lovlina. She won 3-2, arguably weathering the toughest bout of her Games. “Till the end, everyone was scared, but I wasn’t that scared. I didn’t go onto the ring with much stress. The opponent was also very strong, but sometimes it feels good when we play against good opponents and win,” said Lovlina.

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Now that the nonchalance of the end result and the juice of simply performing have come back, Lovlina has thought about all the medals she has won. All the previous World Championship medals, the solitary Olympic bronze and now a Commonwealth silver and Asian Games gold have been added to the collection. “When I keep it alongside all my other medals, this one is the one that shines the brightest,” admits Lovlina.