Amit Panghal Beats the Odds, Books Paris Olympics Spot

Amit Panghal, a star boxer from Rohtak, Haryana, has secured his place at the 2024 Paris Olympics. This is an amazing comeback for him after facing many challenges over the last three years. 

Panghal was the Asian champion and won silver at the World Championships before the last Olympics. But his disappointing performance in Tokyo made people lose faith in his abilities.

After Tokyo, India's boxing bosses dropped Panghal from the team. A new coaching staff was hired, and they did not give Panghal any chances to qualify for major events like the World Championships and Asian Games for the Paris Olympics cycle. This was very tough on Panghal mentally. Instead of boxing, he started cycling and meditating to stay calm. His brother Ajay kept motivating him, saying his talent would earn him an Olympics medal someday. 

With the coaches favoring Deepak Bhoria over him initially, Panghal had to go to court to get a chance to try and qualify for Paris. Finally, when Bhoria failed, the coaches had to pick Panghal for the last qualifiers in Bangkok. Former chief boxing coach BI Fernandes worked closely with Panghal for a few weeks before Bangkok. Fernandes realized Panghal needed a big confidence boost along with training. 

In the quarterfinals in Bangkok against China's Liu Chuang, Panghal was trailing after the first round. But then the boxer everyone saw before Tokyo reappeared. Panghal convincingly won the second round and edged the third to qualify for his second Olympics. 

This has been an incredible journey for Amit Panghal, going from being exiled to making it to the biggest stage once again through sheer determination and skill.