“I visualise going to the Olympic arena and reaching the podium” - Boxer Parveen Hooda sets her eyes on the podium finish at the Paris Olympics 2024
Parveen Hooda, the Indian boxer who secured her Paris Olympics 2024 quota after winning the bronze medal in the 57 kg weight category at the Asian Games 2023, has kept her objective simple to take it one day at a time.
Parveen is not thinking too far ahead and staying in the present. She is having grueling training sessions and is aiming to give her best at the mega event in Paris. Moreover, she is visualizing her podium finish at the quadrennial event, hoping to improve every day.
"It's the process that matters. I take it one day at a time. Every day is the Olympics. I don't think too far ahead. Today, I had two sessions and I was looking to give my best. Sometimes I visualise going to the Olympic arena and reaching the podium. But if I overthink, then it could be an issue. That's why my main focus is to improve every day," she told New Indian Express in an interview.
“I'm not allowed to go home as well” - Parveen Hooda
With the Olympics countdown already started, Parveen Hooda is working on improving her strength instead of focussing too much on making notable changes as there is a short period for the start of the mega event.
"It is very strict at the moment. I'm not allowed to go home as well. The coaches have been closely monitoring me, looking at my strengths and weaknesses. I'm mostly working on increasing my strength because it's hard to make other notable changes in this short period,” she added.
Furthermore, during the Asian Games in 2023 in China, Parveen wasn’t just competing for herself, she was also striving to bring joy to her bedridden father, who was undergoing cancer treatment at the time.
Parveen Hooda, a 63kg world bronze medallist who had jumped to 66kg, made the cut in 57kg for the Paris Olympics 2024. She completely stood away from sweets and stopped eating outside food for three months to reduce her weight to the Olympic weight division.
"It was tough to reduce weight. When I changed weight, it was the summer season. My father was undergoing treatment then. So I used to get frustrated a lot. There was training overload (to reduce weight) and I couldn't eat properly as well. I used to get irritated a lot," Parveen Hooda stated.
"I didn't even think about eating from outside for three months or so then. I'm fond of sweets and I had completely stayed away from sweets as well,” she recalled.
It’s important to note that Parveen won the 2022 World Championships bronze in Istanbul and the 2022 Asian Championships gold in Amman in the 63 kg category. However, she was forced to change her weight category to 57 kg due to Olympic rules. Nevertheless, she stood tall and never gave up.