Mary Kom wins again at Asian Cup

Mary Kom pic Glamour Indian

Indian boxer Mary Kom won gold in the 48kgs division at the Asian Cup yesterday. This was her fourth time taking the title, beginning to be bit of a habit. She beat Kim Myong Sim from North Korea in the tournament, running in China at the moment. 

Mary Kom with her medals

Her website reminds us she has already won five World Titles and somehow finds time to mother twin boys as well, hope her husband helps out a lot! 

Unfortunately the 2012 Olympics will not include a 48kgs division for women. As this is the first year they are including us, there are only three divisions - compared to ten for boys - to start with. They are: 

Fly Weight (48-51kg), 

Light Weight (57-60kg) 

Middle Weight (69-75kg) 

I'm sure Kom will be gunning for one of the 36 slots  - 250 men - but it will be a big ask to get in the ring with women that much heavier. For those of you not initiated into the madness of boxing, fighters usually 'walk around' a good bit heavier than their fight weight and then come down to meet the requirements. So Kom could be aiming to fight at that heavier weight, feeling sluggish and out of sorts. That said, she has a year to prepare so you never know. I'd love to see her take an Olympic medal to add to her amazing story. 

More on Kom here. 

Global Big Wave Awards: the girls

It's a beautiful morning here in Ireland. A day for the beach, not the computer but unfortunately ... So have to make do with blogging about Irish surfer Easkey Britton instead. Nominated to the final five of the Billabong XXL Global Big Wave Awards, she's a rarity here; a female big wave surfer. She didn't make the final prize - that went to Keala Kennelly from Hawaii - but says a lot for the time she puts in on the cold water around here that she made it that far. Inspiring indeed.

A report she wrote on the event for Mpora is here. She says: "For me the quote of the night came from Keala Kennelly when she went to claim her Award, “When you ride one of those big waves it doesn’t matter what you got between your legs!” It felt like a win not just for her but for women’s surfing."

Easkey Britton pic Laurence J Photography

More on Easkey here

Let the countdown begin

I found this on Vimeo earlier this week, great to see the hype building up around women boxers for the Olympics next year. Enjoy -- and have a great weekend!


First Assignment: Women's Boxing 2012 Olympics from Montana Mann on Vimeo.

Sports Blog Karma

I haven't given a shout-out to some great blogs for a while. So, these are some of the new and not-so new blogs I've come across recently:

Element 22

This blog has great photographs of people hanging off mountains, skiiing down mountains, camping in mountains and even some rather large bear paw-prints. Definitely worth a read.

Snowcatcher

An unusual mix of cycle-races, mountain photos and needlework! Have to say I probably don't appreciate the patterns as much as some readers but the bike descriptions are inspiring.

Muslim women in sports

With all the talk of war, it would be easy to forget that life goes on as normal for the majority of Muslim people in the world. Great collection here of sports women from many countries and a wide range of sports.

Women's Views on News

Not just about sport, this website reports on women's roles in mainstream news stories. Some you might have heard of already but others were new to me. Great read.

Do you know any other sites or blogs I should mention in the next round-up? 

Wordless Wednesday

"Winning" photo from Siobhan Silke

Wordless Wednesday is a group of bloggers who give words a rest once a week. 

Winter Olympics joins 21st century

A Norwegian reader (thanks Marte) sent me a link about the IOC's decision to allow women ski jumpers in the tournament. I'm a bit late to the party on this one but bloggers' prerogative and all that ...

So it seems ski-jumpers have Canadian Katie Willis and her friends to thank for this. They took a rights case to a Canadian court, claiming they were being discriminated against by not being allowed to take part. Can you imagine having to take a human rights case to be allowed compete in a sports tournament? Well, not just any tournament but still. Really Jacques Rogge, this is what you want happening on your watch? Can we all please pack up and join the 21st century? (hard to do in Europe at the moment with royal weddings and beatified popes everywhere but let's try)

Katie Willis, Canada

I'm pleased for the new generation of ski-jumpers, and sure there will be more of them now with the Olympic gold as a lure. But was saddened to read that Katie Willis herself is near the end of her career so may not compete in Sochi 2014. In the story, she said: "I've been off for a bit so that does make it hard to get back and get into the rhythm of it. But it's definitely possible, there's still a few years."

I'm sure we missed out many great boxing fights too. Looking forward to seeing all of these women compete in the next few years.

Stop gender violence with sport

Dr. Auma Obama (sister of that Obama) talks on a World Health Organisation (WHO) project to help girls find self-respect and help against violence through the confidence of sport.

UPDATE: Shea Morrissey from Women Win has been in touch to say that grassroots organisation is behind this project not the WHO.  Full post on WW to follow.



How effective do you think sport can be in these situations?