It&rsquo;s hardly an ideal training session for an Olympic hopeful, but then glory never came easily for Kom. From her beginnings as a poor farmers&rsquo; daughter in a remote and troubled corner of India, &ldquo;Magnificent Mary&rdquo; has fought her way up to become five-time world boxing champion. <img alt="" src="/imagedata/2012/may/mary_1.jpg" style="width: 500px; height: 396px; " /> MC Mary Kom training in Pune. Pic/AFP The mum-of-two is now tipped as her country&rsquo;s best bet to win gold at London 2012 &mdash; a position few could envisage when she began learning to box. First challenge &ldquo;People were discouraging me, saying in India there are no women boxers. That was my first challenge. I took the challenge, I had to prove myself,&rdquo; she said.u00a0She now hopes to make her home state even prouder. To compete at the London Games, where women&rsquo;s boxing is a full Olympic medal event for the first time, Kom must qualify at the world championships in China starting on Wednesday. As she edges towards her Olympic dream, Kom&rsquo;s drive to be as good as the guys seems to keep her at the top of her game, in a country where &ldquo;most of the women are looked down on,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;If the men can do it, why can&rsquo;t the women do it? That&rsquo;s my main challenge.&rdquo;

The Indian heat is searing in the gym when the power goes out. A physio hurries over with an emergency lamp and boxing star MC Mary Kom resumes battering the punchbag.

Olympic dream drives Mary Kom

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Olympic dream drives Mary Kom

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