With Lovlina's bronze, women have won 7 of India's last 9 Olympic medals

Despite the achievements, women's sport remains neglected, underfunded in the country

“When I was boxing, these goals didn’t exist,” Pranamika Bora says. Bora, a boxer who represented India at multiple World Championships and the Commonwealth Games, now works as a coach at Sports Authority of India (SAI) National Boxing Academy in Rohtak, Haryana. “We didn’t even dream of the Olympics,” she laughs, because the event wasn’t even part of the programme. “Growing up, it was tough as a girl to justify getting into boxing,” she says. “Your parents didn’t want you getting into a sport where you get hit in the face. No Olympics meant fewer eyeballs, fewer jobs and less