Lovlina Borgohain Reflects on Athlete's Life and Newfound Joy in Medals

It isn’t easy being an athlete. The constant pressure of performance, making sacrifices at various stages of their career and rarely finding moments to appreciate the victories, gets too much to handle at times. Thirteen years after living an athlete’s life, Tokyo Games bronze medallist boxer Lovlina Borgohain has realised that a lot of her time has gone more in overthinking and less in celebrating. So, when she had to settle for silver at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow on Saturday, she said she needed to work harder, but she also celebrated the silver rather than ruing over the missed gold. “I feel I need to work even harder, though my preparation this time was solid and I had put in good effort. I missed out by a small margin, but I am happy. Given my long journey with many ups and downs, I am making a comeback, which is extremely important to me, and maintaining that momentum is key,” Lovlina told TOI from Glasgow. “Now, I enjoy every medal I win. Earlier, if I didn’t reach my expected outcome, I used to get very sad. Then I would immediately fixate on needing to perform in the next match. But I realized that because of that mindset, I couldn’t even enjoy my medals for a long time, and I missed out on many moments I could have celebrated,” said Lovlina, who won her first CWG medal in her third participation. The Assam athlete, who started boxing in 2013, said athletes have to make many sacrifices in their respective journeys, and she was no different. “Staying away from family was the hardest part for me. Beyond that, there are frequent injuries, and you must isolate yourself from many normal things. We constantly feel that even a minor distraction — like going out somewhere or eating something outside — might negatively impact our performance. A huge chunk of time goes into overthinking whether an action will cause a problem. In a way, having to carefully evaluate every single decision is a sacrifice in itself,” the Khel Ratna awardee said. Quitting things that she loved for the sake of her game has made her a completely different person. “I used to love sweets a lot. But I told myself I shouldn’t eat them, so I completely stopped. Now, I don’t even crave them anymore. I don’t miss not having sweets or ice cream,” she said. After following a routine for so many years, Lovlina said it will be difficult to go back to the old life again. “But we still enjoy it, because if we weren’t boxing and lived a normal life, we probably wouldn’t fit into that either. This has become our life, and we love living it this way.”

After reeling under constant pressure of winning a medal and doing well, Lovlina said that she has made peace with not winning a medal too. “There were many moments I missed out on that I could have enjoyed more. Sometimes I do feel a bit of regret about those things, but once you realize it, everything changes from that moment on. The whole perspective shifts. Right now, losing doesn’t sadden me as much as winning a medal makes me happy — and seeing my teammates perform so well makes me even happier,” she said.