Preeti Pawar Interview: How Dangal And Sakshi Malik's Olympic Medal Inspired Bhiwani's Boxing Prodigy

What does a boxer carry in her bag for big bouts? Sparring gloves, hand wraps, a custom-molded mouthguard, a skipping rope, boxing boots, a tub of Vaseline for the cuts that come with the territory. Preeti Pawar carries all of it, and one thing more, strips of coloured paper folded into shapes, tucked in beside the gloves she will carry into the Commonwealth Games 2026 in Glasgow and the Asian Games 2026.

In a conversation with Outlook India, Preeti Pawar spoke about the journey that took her from a reluctant teenager to an Olympian, the rituals that keep her calm, and the dream that now drives her towards LA 2028.

"Boxing is a very demanding sport. You need aggression inside the ring, but something to steady the nerves outside it, so I do calligraphy. I want to carry brushes for it but that's a hassle, so I carry paper to quill instead," Preeti said.

At 22, Preeti is already an Asian Games medallist and an Olympian, one of the brightest names to emerge from Bhiwani, the Haryana town that has sent boxer after boxer to the national fold.

She has qualified for both the Asian Games and the Commonwealth Games 2026 in the women's 54kg category. But her story did not begin with any hunger for the sport. It began with a girl who wanted nothing to do with it.

How 'Dangal' Broke A Family's All-Male Sporting Legacy

Born in Bhiwani on October 23, 2003, Preeti grew up around sport without chasing it herself. Her father served with the Haryana Police and had played kabaddi. Her uncle, Vinod Sai Pawar, was a former national-level boxer. Even her great-grandfather had wrestled.

But for all that sporting lineage in the men of her family, no woman before Preeti had ever chosen sport as a career, and even Preeti didn't see it coming for herself. Her mother never played sport and has always been a homemaker. It was her father and uncle who saw something in her that she had not yet seen in herself.

"I didn't want to join boxing. My father and uncle introduced me to it. In the beginning, I said no, I don't want to play, I will study, I don't like boxing. But they said, play, try, watch," she said.

The timing could not have been better. Dangal had just hit theatres, and Sakshi Malik had made history by winning India's first Olympic medal in women's wrestling.

"The line 'Hamari chhoriyaan chhoron se kam hain ke?' ('Are our daughters any less than sons?') really struck a chord. At the time, there was a strong push to encourage girls into sports, and my father was deeply inspired by that line," she recalled.

For a family where women had never taken up sport, Dangal and Sakshi Malik's Olympic medal changed the conversation. Together, they inspired Preeti's family to believe that their daughter, too, could carve out a future in boxing.

She was 13 when she first stepped into a boxing ring, in 2017, and she remembers being terrified.

"I didn't know anything about boxing. When you watch a match, it feels like, they're punching so much, doesn't it hurt? I got into a bout with another girl and I didn't even know how to punch. At one time, I had to punch once, then the other, I had to punch both at the same time. I didn't know what to do. I just had to save myself," she said.

It was not the fear that stayed with her. It was what came after. "When I lost that bout, I realised the loss weighed heavier than my weight category. I felt that now I have to do it, I have to train harder," she said.

"That's when my interest started," she added.

Her rise through the ranks was fast enough that she barely had time in the youth system before senior boxing came calling. Gold at the Open State tournament in Panipat. A youth national title. Silver at the 2020 Khelo India Games, gold at the 2021 edition.

A silver at the Youth Asian Championships in 2021, followed a year later by bronze at the senior Asian Championships. The jump from youth to senior camp, she said, changed everything.

"In the senior camp, we are all senior athletes, so there is a different environment, a respect for them. They tell us about their journey, how they waited, how they sacrificed. We get a lot of motivation from that," she said.

Around her are boxers she has grown up alongside -- Jasmine, Parveen, Poonam Ponia, Arundhati Chaudhary -- teammates from the youth ranks who now share the same senior dressing room. "It feels good that I am performing well now. Many people dream of just reaching the national camp," she added.

She trains at the Inspire Institute of Sport (IIS) when the national camp is not in session, and in Patiala when it is. For a young athlete balancing school and competition, she credits IIS for making that balance possible in the first place.

"All the athletes in IIS who are young and still in school have the best environment there because, alongside training, equal importance is given to their education. They even conduct special classes. There are dedicated classrooms for different subjects on the IIS campus, so athletes can continue their studies while training," she said.

That balance between discipline off the field and intensity on it also reflects Preeti's own personality.

Preeti has built her reputation on aggression inside the ring. Away from it, though, she is measured, composed, and far quieter than her boxing persona suggests.

"Everyone says I look aggressive in the ring, but I'm actually very calm outside it. I think it's because of the way I speak. Inside the ring, though, everything changes. That's where I'm aggressive," she said.

There is a lighter side to that reputation too, one that has followed her outside the ring since school.

"I have heard this a lot, even in school. If someone knows that he is a boxer, they say, don't mess with him, stay away," she said, before adding with some amusement that the image rarely matches reality. "But actually, boxers are not like that."

The switch does not happen by accident. Before every bout, she runs a mental rehearsal that lasts 15 to 20 minutes -- the walk to the ring, the posture she wants to carry, the version of herself she wants her opponent to see.

"I always visualise my bout. How I am entering the ring, what kind of personality I have when I enter it. Do I look aggressive? Do I look sharp? So whenever I enter the ring, I already know I have done this. Now I just have to go and perform," she said.

It is here that the paper comes back in. Preeti has been an artist for as long as she has been a boxer, drawn to painting and calligraphy long before punches entered the picture.

But on the road, ahead of a bout, art becomes something closer to survival.

"Whenever there is a pressure situation, I don't feel good, I feel anxiety. So I do quilling with paper. Whenever we are outside India, we don't have space for painting, brushes, colours. So I try to cut any paper and start quilling. It helps me handle it," she said.

It is a small, portable ritual, built for a life that moves between training camps and airports, one that lets her carry a version of her art form even when there is no room for the real one.

Paris: A First Olympic Chapter, Both Painful And Promising

Preeti's defining moment arrived at the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games. In the women's 54kg quarter-final, she stunned Kazakhstan's Zhaina Shekerbekova, a multiple-time World Championships medallist, to guarantee herself a medal, before bowing out to China's Chang Yuan, a future Olympic champion, in the semi-final.

The bronze she walked away with also punched her ticket to the Paris 2024 Olympics, making her one of India's youngest boxers to qualify for the Games.

Paris turned out to be a mix of promise and heartbreak. She began her campaign with a confident, unanimous-decision win over Vietnam's Vo Thi Kim Anh, only to fall 3-2 to Colombia's Yeni Arias, a World Championships silver medallist, in the pre-quarter-finals.

Fitness troubles had crept in ahead of the Games, she admits, but even with the early exit, the experience of competing at her first Olympics is one she still holds close. Weeks later, she was back on the podium, winning gold at the Asian U22 and Youth Championships in Astana, proof that the Paris setback had done little to slow her down.

That inspiration has come full circle. Every national anthem played for her at a podium carries the weight of a decision she once resisted. "When I heard the national anthem, I was feeling very proud that I came here and did something for India. It was a very good feeling for me," she said.

Looking back, Preeti still finds it hard to believe how far boxing has taken her.

"I'm still amazed by how all of this happened. Yes, I worked hard, but it still feels like magic," she said.

Preparing For Asian Games, CWG 2026, And A Long Road To LA

The road ahead is packed, with the Commonwealth Games followed by the Asian Games. But every step is part of a larger journey towards the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.

"I have worked on my technique for LA. And mentally, I have worked a lot for it too. Now I am studying my opponents, and the youth boxers who are coming up. In 2028, there will be a lot of new boxers, so I am preparing for that as well," she said.

True to form, she has already put the goal down on paper, literally, in the calligraphy she practises between camps. Asked if she has written down that she will go to LA and win a medal, her answer comes without hesitation. "Yes."

The girl who once said no to boxing is now one of the names India will watch closely. By her own admission, she's "ready to fight."

Indian Boxing Squad For 2026 Commonwealth Games And Asian Games

Asian Games 2026

Women: Sakshi Chaudhary (51kg), Preeti Pawar (54kg), Priya Ghanghas (60kg), Parveen Hooda (65kg), Lovlina Borgohain (75kg)

Men: Jadumani Singh (55kg), Sachin Siwach (60kg), Sumit Kundu (70kg), Ankush (80kg), Kapil Pokhariya (90kg), Narender Berwal (+90kg)

Commonwealth Games 2026

Women: Sakshi Chaudhary (51kg), Preeti Pawar (54kg), Jaismine Lamboria (57kg), Priya Ghanghas (60kg), Parveen Hooda (65kg), Arundhati Choudhary (70kg), Lovlina Borgohain (75kg)

Men: Jadumani Singh (55kg), Sachin Siwach (60kg), Aditya Pratap Singh (65kg), Sumit Kundu (70kg), Ankush (80kg), Kapil Pokhariya (90kg), Narender Berwal (+90kg)