On a day of comebacks at the World Boxing Cup Finals in Greater Noida, Parveen Hooda’s return to the ring was a special one, which came after 838 days.
The boxer from Haryana returned to international action after a fall from grace back in 2023 when she was banned due to a whereabouts failure. It resulted in her missing the 2024 Paris Olympics and losing the Asian Games medal.
“It took me a lot of time to come back from the Olympic setback. It was a challenge to recover mentally first and then physically. But we can’t live in the past, so here I am in my first international tournament after more than one year,” a visibly emotional Parveen told The Indian Express.
The mental aspect of recovery was tougher for Parveen with a medal gone and the stigma of being a banned athlete. “I come from a small village. Nobody told me directly anything but they would ask my family. They would say that your daughter was supposed to play at the Olympics, what happened to her,” Parveen said.
The mental aspect of recovery was tougher for Parveen with a medal gone and the stigma of being a banned athlete. (BFI)
And it was not only the shattering of a life long dream but also the deteriorating health of her father, who was suffering from cancer, that made it tough for Parveen. “My father was suffering from cancer. As a family, we were struggling. However, one thing that came out of my ban was that I was able to spend time with my father and take him to a good hospital where he got good treatment.”
Fixing mistakes
Missing out on the Olympics, was a setback for Parveen.
“It was my lifelong dream that was shattered due to one mistake. I was angry at myself for not checking my emails. It was an error that cost me the Olympics,” Parveen said. A whereabouts ban is imposed when an athlete misses three doping tests within a year.
But she’s learnt from her mistakes.
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“The thing now is that I can’t live in the past and the lesson for me is that if you make a mistake, you can fix it,” Parveen said. She received help from Boxing Federation of India’s psychologist Priya Vrindha.
However, in elite sports, returning after a big layoff is not easy. She also had to deal with a shoulder injury. “I resumed my training and immediately suffered a shoulder injury. When we are not training, we lose weight and injury chances increase,” Parveen said. “I was doing my rehab but I was on my own as there was not much support from anyone. I used to take long walks and think about what all I will do when I return to the boxing ring. Sometimes, I would play with my pet dog which also kept me distracted when I needed it,” Parveen explained.
With close to nine months gone and her ban almost getting over, Parveen focussed more on making a comeback in the Olympic category of 60 kg. She moved one weight category up. “I have played in both the 57 kg category and 60 kg category before. So, I talked to my coaches and decided that I will ease on the international arena with the 60 kg category,” she said.
At the BFI Cup in October, Parveen returned to active boxing and clinched the gold medal defeating Priya in the final.
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A winning return
On her comeback to the international arena, Parveen was up against Polish boxer Aneta Elzibeta, who recently won a silver medal at the World Championships in Liverpool. The Polish boxer landed some punches in the second round but Parveen was moving better in the ring and used her supreme reach to land jabs across her opponent’s face.
In the end, Parveen prevailed in front of the home crowd.
