Mumbai: The mountains of Kashmir had been delightfully interesting but dreadfully drenched when Nikhat Zareen landed on their foothills. It, nonetheless, couldn’t deter the boxer from going forward with what she’d got down to do, and what her native information — who didn’t know what this vacationer did for a dwelling till Nikhat informed him earlier than leaving — thought was past her: embark upon one of many tougher treks of Gulmarg.
Boxer Nikhat Zareen fully remoted herself after coming back from a disappointing marketing campaign on the Paris Olympics. (HT)
Minutes after her Paris Olympics exit, Nikhat was nonetheless teary-eyed when she expressed her longing to go on an experimental solo journey for her post-Video games reboot. Although not technically — she was accompanied by her sister — the Kashmir journey was for all sensible functions a solo journey. “I was mostly spending time by myself,” Nikhat mentioned.
And so, after her first day’s trek plans received dampened, Nikhat was adamant in not letting climate are available the way in which the following day too. “It was risky. But I told the guide, ‘chahe kuch bhi ho jaye, I want to complete this trek’,” she mentioned.
She did, despite the fact that it poured. “It was so peaceful on top,” Nikhat mentioned. “And once I came back down, mann ko shanti mili (my mind was calm).”
Months in the past, that thoughts was in all places when, on one other expedition to the touch the height of successful an Olympic medal, Nikhat faltered. Amongst India’s high medal hopes, the two-time world champion was despatched packing from the pre-quarters in her first Olympics by eventual gold medallist Wu Yu. The Gulmarg trek, and Nikhat’s stubbornness in ending it, was to clear the litter of that Paris tumble.
“I found it weird to front up to my own people. My parents had huge expectations, and I wanted to do it for them more than anybody else. Which I couldn’t. It was heartbreaking. I was broken,” Nikhat informed HT from her house in Hyderabad.
Nikhat fully remoted herself after coming back from Paris. “I was not in contact with anyone; not even with my boxing teammates,” she mentioned. She discovered solace in the identical individuals she believed she had let down — her household. It now had an addition, a golden retriever Nikhat named Bella. “People call me Nikki, and she is Bella,” Nikhat mentioned, smiling. “I spent days just playing with her.”
It’s not a state of affairs India’s star boxer is used to. There was a part main as much as the Olympics, from 2022 till late 2023 as a bronze medallist on the Asian Video games, the place Nikhat solely knew the texture of victories and the contact of gold. The post-Paris hole that made means for the pre-Paris hype was thus eerily uncommon.
“It was tough. In the past too I have come back empty-handed from a few competitions, like the 2020 Strandja tournament and Youth Olympic Qualifiers in 2014. But that was different. Back then, people didn’t know who Nikhat Zareen was. Now, being a two-time world champion and coming back empty-handed was hard to digest. And to tell myself, ‘Nikhat, tu iss baar medal nahi jeeti hai (you haven’t won a medal this time)’. To keep reminding myself about it was the toughest part. More than anyone else, I had the most expectations of winning a medal. But, at some point, you have to accept the reality.”
She nonetheless fleetingly confronts that actuality. Of that tough draw that saved her unseeded and pit her towards the highest seed within the second spherical; of that Chinese language opponent she’d by no means confronted and the 11am bout that took her off guard by way of restoration.
“Mere kismat mein hi nahi tha, I guess,” Nikhat says.
‘Dmitry as coach didn’t go well with me a lot’
The 28-year-old has regularly moved on, with a newfound outlook in direction of boxing that she now seeks to stability higher with different life tasks. Nikhat has began power coaching at Pullela Gopichand’s academy in Hyderabad. She will’t see a “clear picture” for the longer term resulting from boxing’s uncertainty across the 2028 LA Video games, but the Indian is on the hunt for a private coach to enhance as a boxer. She does sense some battle down that path.
“I want to train under a foreign coach. But BFI (boxing federation) is also looking for a foreign coach. So, if I train for some time with my coach and then go into the national camp, it could disturb everything.”
Indian boxing was riddled in teaching dysfunction, with the departure of high-performance director Bernard Dunne months earlier than the Video games. Overseas coach Dmitry Dmitruk took cost by means of a medal-less marketing campaign in Paris. Nikhat felt adjusting to totally different kinds of recent coaches is time-consuming and difficult, and that the teaching distraction was detrimental to her personally and Indian boxing total.
“Before Paris, our HPD quit. It disturbed our entire team. Until Bernard was there, he was handling everything. With Dmitry, he had language issues, and couldn’t speak English that well. Though he is a dedicated coach, he was trying to change everything, which, personally, didn’t suit me too much. But at that last stage, I thought it is better to focus on my preparations rather than complain,” she says. “Paris was disappointing for Indian boxing overall. But it was a lesson learnt.”