India’s star boxer Lovlina Borgohain may have defied the odds to find her way to a historic ‘bronze’ medal at the Tokyo Olympics but all of it is “done and dusted now” and she wants to focus on improving every aspect of her game to fulfill her dream of winning the gold in the Paris edition in 2024.

In an exclusive interview with Indiatoday.in, Borgohain, who clinched the welterweight (69kg) bronze, spoke about her plans after the Tokyo heroics, her ‘impossible is nothing’ mantra and how her regular life now becomes much more eventful thanks to overnight fame.

The dynamic boxer from the Baro Mukhia village of Assam’s Golaghat district became only the third Indian boxer to finish on the Olympic podium after six-time world champion MC Mary Kom and the very decorated Vijender Singh.

Lovlina has her aim set at the elusive Olympic gold but before that, she wants to make her mark in the upcoming women’s world boxing championships after being handed direct qualification by the Indian federation. Lovlina clearly states that she wants to perform well in the World Championship, Asian Games, and Commonwealth games as these tournaments would work as a stepping stone ahead of the Paris Games.

“My next target is World Championship. As I have told earlier that my dream is still not complete as I wanted to win the gold medal in Olympics. My main aim is Olympics gold but before that World Championship, Asian Games, Commonwealth games are also very important tournaments for me. I have to perform well in all these tournaments and right now my focus is on World Championship,” Lovlina said.

‘Raffaele played an important role in my medal at Tokyo’

Indian women’s boxing’s High-Performance Director Raffaele Bergamasco headed back to his home in Italy after spending nearly a month ‘waiting’ for the national federation to respond to his queries on whether he would be ‘retained’. Lovlina said that Raffaele played a very important role in her finish on the podium with a bronze medal and she learned a lot while working with the Italian coach.

Working with him was great. Got a lot to learn from him and the journey was very nice. Now that the federation has taken the decision, we must respect it. Federation takes decisions for our benefit only. However, he played a very important role in my Olympic bronze,” Lovlina further stated.

‘My aim is to turn my weakness into my strength’

Despite winning a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics in boxing, Lovlina Borgohain is not happy as she says that her aim is to win the gold at Paris 2024. And to fulfill her dream, Lovlina is focussing on strength training.

“Every opponent or bout teaches you something new. I learned something new from each opponent. I need to work upon my strength. My technique was perfect but I found that I need to improve my strength. I have worked on it before Tokyo and we will continue to work on it. My aim is to turn my weakness into my strength in the coming years.

“Feels good to meet PM Modi, he motivated us to improve our performance. My mantra is ‘impossible is nothing’ and I believe that I will fulfill my dream of winning gold in Paris Olympics,” Lovlina signed off