Reigning world champion in the 57 kg weight class, Indian athlete Jaismin Lamboria is a leading contender for gold in the boxing tournament at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. The 24-year-old won bronze in Birmingham in 2022, but is now aiming for a different medal color, according to the BBC.

Lamboria cites Indian cricket legend Mahendra Singh Dhoni as her main inspiration when it comes to maintaining composure, saying she wants to maintain the same level of composure in the ring that earned him the nickname "Captain Cool."

2025 was a breakthrough year for her: gold at the World Cup stages in Astana and Delhi, followed by the World Championship title in Liverpool. However, disappointment awaited her at the Paris Olympics, when she lost in the first round to Tokyo 2020 silver medalist Nesty Petecio of the Philippines. It's worth noting that a similar scenario has already happened to Lamboria: at the 2022 Birmingham bronze medal, her cautious, wait-and-see approach, relying on her height and range advantages, failed in the semifinal against the short but aggressive Briton Gemma Richardson. Richardson caught the Indian off guard with her onslaught and snatched a 3-2 victory. It was after this defeat in Paris, the boxer admits, that she reassessed not only her physical but also her mental preparation.

The army played a key role in this transformation. After winning bronze in 2022, Lamboria became the first female boxer to be commissioned into the Indian Army, serving as a havildar in the Military Police Corps under the Mission Olympics program, which once trained Olympic javelin champion Neeraj Chopra. Lamboria currently trains at the Army Sports Institute in Pune.

Lamboria hails from Bhiwani in Haryana, a city known as the "Indian Cuba of boxing." Her great-grandfather was a two-time Asian Games heavyweight champion in the 1960s and 1970s, and her uncles, also boxers, recruited her to train as a teenager. Lamboria admits that the successes of Olympic champions Mary Kom and Vijender Singh, whom she heard about as a schoolgirl, inspired her to take up boxing.

Today, Lamboria herself is becoming a benchmark: in 2024, the Indian Army launched a separate program for girls aged 12-16 in Olympic sports, including boxing. "I may have been the first female boxer in the army, but I certainly wasn't the last," says the athlete.