Sree Charani’s ice-cool control. Sheetal Devi’s relentless grit. Chess queen Divya Deshmukh unleashing gambits. In 2025, India’s young sportswomen didn’t just compete — they conquered. From Unnati Hooda and Tanvi Sharma ushering in a new era in badminton to the rise of another ‘Phogat’ — Suruchi — this time on the shooting range, Ankita Bhagat rattling South Korea’s archery dynasty, Preeti Pawar’s clinical power in the ring, or Antim Panghal reminding she still owns the mat. Express Sports dives deep into ‘Gen She’ – the trailblazers who kept the Tricolour flying high.
The brightest days could not slay the memories of boxer Preeti Pawar’s darkest evenings. She can’t take the eyes of the gold medal she won in the Delhi World Cup, shocking big names. The naib subedar’s uniform, after she became the first sportsperson to be directly inducted into the Indian Army as a junior commissioned officer, brims her heart with pride. At her home in Bhiwani, father Somvir Sai Pawar, an ASI in Haryana Police, is eagerly awaiting her return to salute her in the uniform.
Yet, amid the good tidings, her mind wanders to bitter Paris evenings. Her narrow round-of-16 loss to Columbia’s Yeni Macela Castaneda in the Olympics 2024 began to haunt her again. “Less than two months prior to the Olympics, I would vomit 5-6 times during a flight to Germany. My resting heart rate would be 80-84 BPM rather than the average of 48-50 BPM. I felt lethargic. I was diagnosed with Hepatitis A and I knew I had to give my best amid these,” she tells The Indian Express.
The 22-year-old fought with all the strength and courage she could muster. Even the defeat to Castaneda, she says, was “her best with all the struggles”. She found a broader sense of perspective. She imbibed career lessons from the 66kg quarter-final bout between Tokyo Olympics champion Busenaz Sürmeneli and Janjaem Suwannapheng. “Suwannapheng won the bout, and I could sense how she would have planned for the win mentally as well physically and how a champion would also be defeated,” she recollects.
Firm dreams of redemption in the Los Angeles Games began to sprout. The path is tough, Preeti knows. “I know I have to mentally and physically prepare towards the goal of winning the gold at the LA Olympics and that can come only with pushing my limits,” she says. Before that there is the Asian Games, which would be the ideal platform to gauge her progress. “Asia sees the world’s boxers in 54Kg and to win the Asian Games title next year is the target to put me on the path towards LA Olympics gold,” she says.
No setback, though, would stall her big dream. Months before the Delhi World Cup final, she missed the bus to the World Championships in Liverpool and three World Cups, as she had joined the national camp only in July. It took her nearly six months of training at the Meham Boxing Club in Bhiwani and later at the Inspire Institute of Sport under coach Stuart O’Connor to regain full strength. “Physically I had become weak,” she admits.
But Preeti says she knew it was not her fault. She knew she had to start from scratch. “Once I regained strength, I had to start from scratch. Uncle Vinod (Sai Pawar) would work on my endurance as well counter boxing and side movement. It was like my early days of boxing and this time, I had all the experience too,” she says.
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Uncle Vinod is one of the guiding lights of her life. He runs a boxing academy in Bhiwani, where her father Somvir, an ASI in Haryana Police put her when she was 14. A kabbadi player, he wanted her to pursue some sport. But Preeti was reluctant. “Main toh bas padhai karna chahti thi. Boxer banane ka toh kabhi socha bhi nahi tha (I just wanted to study and achieve something. I never thought of pursuing boxing),” she says. But soon, she got hooked to the sports that combine power, stealth and wits. Five years later, she was among the finest boxers in her country. But she knows the journey has only begun.
Practice makes Preeti perfect
Once she regained her optimal strength, he practised five rounds a day with the Delhi World Cup in mind. “Later at IIS, coach Stuart would work on my footwork as well to make me understand the tactics to play according to the opponent’s game plan too,” she recalls.
She had only one ambition; to win the gold medal. In the first bout, she bumped into her old foe, Nigina Uktamova, Asian Games medallist. “I had lost against Uktamova in the Youth Asian Games earlier but I knew I could beat her this time. She is an attacking boxer and I went with the plan of boxing counter,” she remembers. Next up was three-time world champion and Tokyo Games bronze-winner Hsiao-Wen Huang. “Against Huang, I knew I had to box from the back foot with my guard up and land punches on face and body, get away from her reach quickly and make her tired.” The last hurdle was World No. 7 Sirine Charaabi. “I knew I had to rely on my upper cuts and jabs.” So she did and completed a redemptive triumph.
Her coach in ASI, Pune, sheds more light on her strengths and ring IQ. “The 54kg class sees a fine balance between power and speed. She has both. Huang was almost 176-178 cm tall and Preeti’s height was 165 cm. And she showed her dominance as well endurance against such a boxer. Of course, her upper cut and right hook are some of the best in the business. The focus will be on her speedwork,” says Yadav. Through all the hard grind, the heartbreak of Paris would be fuelling her.
