Lovlina Borgohain: Asian Games 2026 Gold Medal & Boxing Results

Lovlina Borgohain won the women's 75kg boxing gold at the 2026 Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan on 2 October 2026, her 29th birthday, beating China's Bao Ziyi 5-0 in the final at the Nishio Gymnasium. The gold upgrades her silver from Hangzhou in 2023 and makes her only the second Indian woman boxer, after M C Mary Kom, to win an Asian Games gold. Boxing at the Games ran from 21 September to 2 October, as part of a programme staged across the wider 19 September - 4 October window.

Her route to Nagoya took a detour. Under the Boxing Federation of India's selection policy, boxers reaching the final at the Asian Boxing Championships earned direct qualification, but Lovlina fell short of the final in Ulaanbaatar. She instead had to come through the national trials in Patiala, where she outclassed Sanamacha Chanu 5-0 in the women's 75kg final to confirm her spot on the Indian team, alongside fellow qualifier Sakshi Chaudhary. In Nagoya she received a direct entry into the quarterfinal and won all three bouts to take gold.

This is Japan's third time hosting the Asian Games, with 43 sports and 469 events. Read our complete guide to Asian Games 2026 in Nagoya, Japan, check the Asian Games 2026 India schedule, and see where to watch Asian Games 2026 live in India.

Lovlina Borgohain (born 2 October 1997 in Baromukhia village, Golaghat district, Assam) is an Indian boxer and a Tokyo 2020 Olympic bronze medallist in the 69kg (welterweight) category. She is a 2023 World Championship gold medallist, an Asian Games gold medallist (Aichi-Nagoya 2026) and an Asian Games silver medallist (Hangzhou 2023), both in the women's 75kg (middleweight) category.

Lovlina Borgohain's rise from a modest household in Baromukhia to an Olympic medallist and Khel Ratna awardee is one of Indian boxing's most-followed stories. Known for her height, reach and calm, counter-punching style, she became the first Assamese woman to win an Olympic medal and has kept pushing for more, moving up a weight class and switching from bronze to gold ambitions along the way.

Lovlina Borgohain was born on 2 October 1997 in Baromukhia, a village in Assam's Golaghat district. Her father, Tiken Borgohain, ran a small business and struggled financially to support the family; her mother often took loans to fund her daughters' sporting ambitions. Lovlina's two elder sisters, Licha and Lima, competed nationally in kickboxing, and she followed them into Muay Thai as a child before switching to boxing.

In 2012, while attending a Sports Authority of India trial at Barpathar Girls High School, she was spotted by coach Padum Chandra Boro, who began training her as a boxer. She went on to win the Arjuna Award in 2020 and the Khel Ratna, India's highest sporting honour, in 2021 the first athlete from Assam to receive it.

Lovlina's only previous Asian Games appearance came at Hangzhou (held in 2023), where she reached the final of the women's 75kg category, going down 0-5 to China's Li Qian in the gold-medal bout to take silver. The semifinal win that sent her there, a 5-0 decision over Thailand's Baison Maneekon, also confirmed her quota place for the Paris 2024 Olympics.

• 2017: Bronze at the Asian Championships in Ho Chi Minh City (welterweight).
• 2018: Bronze at the World Championships in New Delhi (welterweight).
• 2019: Bronze at the World Championships in Ulan-Ude (welterweight).
• 2020: Sealed her Tokyo Olympics berth with a 5-0 win over Uzbekistan's Maftunakhon Melieva at the Asia & Oceania Olympic qualifier, becoming the first woman from Assam to qualify for the Olympics; awarded the Arjuna Award the same year.

At her Olympic debut in Tokyo, Lovlina beat former world champion Chen Nien-Chin 4-1 in the welterweight (69kg) quarterfinal to guarantee a medal, becoming only the third Indian boxer, after Vijender Singh and M C Mary Kom, to reach an Olympic podium, and the first-ever Olympic medallist from Assam. She then lost to Turkey's reigning world champion Busenaz Surmeneli in the semifinal, finishing with bronze. She competed despite a Lisfranc foot injury suffered in the buildup to the Games, part of a pattern of setbacks and comebacks that has run through her career.

Lovlina Borgohain's game has been shaped by several coaches: Padum Chandra Boro, who spotted her at a school-level SAI trial in 2012 and remains her grassroots coach to this day; Shiv Singh, chief coach of Indian women's boxing during her early development; development coaches Md Ali Qamar and Sandhya Gurung, who worked with her through the Tokyo Olympic cycle; and current India women's boxing head coach Santiago Nieva, who has guided her adaptation to the heavier 75kg category.

Injuries and disruptions have shaped stretches of Lovlina's career, particularly around major Games:

• Pre-Tokyo 2021: Suffered a Lisfranc injury to her right foot just a month before the Olympics, and tested Covid-positive ahead of a training camp in Italy the year before.
• Paris 2024 Olympics: Lost 1-4 to top seed Li Qian of China in the 75kg quarterfinal, narrowly missing a second Olympic medal after leading on some judges' cards.
• 2026 Asian Championships, Ulaanbaatar: Failed to reach the final, costing her direct qualification for the Asian Games and forcing a trip through the national trials instead.

With her old 69kg welterweight category dropped from the Paris 2024 programme, Lovlina moved up to 75kg (middleweight) in 2022, winning gold at the 2022 Asian Championships in Amman in her maiden outing at the new weight and sealing an Olympic quota place. She built on that with a gold medal at the 2023 World Championships in New Delhi, beating Li Qian along the way, before the two met again in the final of the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games, where Lovlina took silver.

Lovlina's bid to defend her Tokyo bronze began well at Paris 2024, with a 5-0 win over Norway's Sunniva Hofstad in the round of 16. But in the quarterfinal she again faced Li Qian, the reigning world champion at the weight and a two-time Olympic medallist, and lost a close 1-4 split decision, ending India's boxing campaign at those Games. She used the setback to refocus, returning to the ring through 2025 and into 2026 with continued continental-level performances.

Through 2025 and into 2026, Lovlina continued competing at 75kg, winning a silver at the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, where she lost 4-1 to Australia's Emma-Sue Greentree in the final, before falling short of the final at the 2026 Asian Championships and having to come through the national trials for her Asian Games berth. These results kept her inside India's core boxing squad heading into the Asian Games cycle, and she peaked in Nagoya, winning Asian Games gold on 2 October 2026.

Lovlina's Asian Games 2026 campaign ended with gold. After beating Seong Suyeon in the women's 75kg quarterfinal on 28 September and Natalya Bogdanova in the semifinal on 30 September, she defeated China's Bao Ziyi 5-0 in the final at the Nishio Gymnasium on 2 October 2026. Her next event will be added here once confirmed.

Lovlina's career-best result remains her 2023 World Championship gold at 75kg, achieved by beating reigning Asian champion Li Qian along the way and confirming her as the leading Indian boxer in the category.

• Asian Games Gold Medallist (2026): Won the women's 75kg title in Aichi-Nagoya on 2 October 2026, beating China's Bao Ziyi 5-0 in the final.
• Khel Ratna Award (2021): India's highest sporting honour, conferred for her Olympic bronze first athlete from Assam to receive it.
• Arjuna Award (2020): Conferred by the Government of India for her performance ahead of the Tokyo Olympics; sixth personality from Assam to receive it.
• Olympic Bronze Medallist: Bronze in the women's 69kg welterweight at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics the first-ever Olympic medal for an athlete from Assam.
• World Champion: Gold at the 2023 World Boxing Championships in New Delhi, 75kg.
• Assam Government Recognition (2021): Awarded ₹1 crore in cash, offered the post of Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), and had a stadium named in her honour, following her Tokyo Olympics bronze.

She also won bronze at the 2018 and 2019 World Championships, bronze at the 2017 and 2021 Asian Championships, and the 2020 Arjuna Award, alongside consistent podium finishes on the international Grand Prix circuit through her career.

Lovlina lined up as part of an 11-strong Indian boxing contingent at the 2026 Asian Games alongside Sakshi Chaudhary (51kg), Preeti Pawar (54kg), Priya Ghanghas (60kg) and Parveen Hooda (65kg) in the women's draw, with Jadumani Singh, Sachin Siwach, Sumit Kundu, Ankush Panghal, Kapil Pokhariya and Narender Berwal making up the men's team. Her main continental rivals in the 75kg field include China's Li Qian, a two-time Olympic medallist who beat her in both the 2023 Asian Games final and the Paris 2024 quarterfinal (though Lovlina beat her at the 2023 World Championships), Kazakhstan's world champion Natalya Bogdanova, and Uzbekistan's Aziza Zokirova and Navbakhor Khamidova. In Nagoya, Lovlina beat Bogdanova 3-2 in the semifinal and China's Bao Ziyi 5-0 in the final.

Lovlina Borgohain's career matters well beyond her medal count.

• The first-ever Olympic medallist from Assam, and only the third Indian boxer to win an Olympic medal
• A World Championship gold medallist at 75kg in 2023
• An Asian Games gold medallist in 2026, only the second Indian woman boxer to win Asian Games gold after M C Mary Kom
• India's highest sporting honour, the Khel Ratna, awarded in 2021
• A boxer who moved up a weight class after 69kg was dropped from the Olympic programme, and rebuilt her career from a kickboxing gym in rural Assam

From a tea-garden village in Golaghat to Asian Games gold in Nagoya on her 29th birthday, Lovlina Borgohain's story is one of persistence through setbacks, with the continental title she missed in 2023 now in her hands.