Vijender Singh Beniwal- The Boxing Legend

Vijender Singh Beniwal (born October 29, 1985) (also known as Vijender Singh or Vijender Beniwal) is an Olympic Medalist Indian boxer from Kalwas village, Bhiwani district in Haryana. He belongs to a Hindu family of Jat ethnicity. Vijender’s early days were spent in his village where he did his schooling, after which he received a bachelor’s degree from a local college in Bhiwani. He practiced boxing at the Bhiwani Boxing Club where coach Jagdish Singh recognized his talent and encouraged him to take to professional boxing.

Vijender went on to compete at the sub-junior nationals where he won a silver medal for two years in succession. Having won medals in different competitions at the national level, Vijender was picked to train and compete at several international level competitions such as the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics and the 2006 Commonwealth Games. At the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, he won the bronze medal after losing the semifinal bout against Kazakhstan's Bakhtiyar Artayev. At the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, he defeated Carlos Góngora of Ecuador 9–4 in the quarterfinals which guaranteed him a bronze medal—the first ever Olympic medal for an Indian boxer.

He lost 5–8 to Cuba's Emilio Correa in the semi-finals on 22 August 2008 and shared a bronze medal.Vijender, and Indian wrestler Sushil Kumar—who won a bronze at the men's wrestling competitions—were welcomed grandly to India after their victory.

 

In July 2009, Vijender accompanied by Sushil and boxer Mary Kom were felicitated with the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award—India's highest sporting honour. It was the first time that three sportspeople were picked for the award; the award selection committee decided to felicitate all of them, taking into consideration their performance for the cycle of 2008–09. Kom and Vijender were the first boxers to get the award which carried prize money of Rs 7.5 lakh and a citation.

Vijender participated at the 2009 World Amateur Boxing Championships. He was beaten by Abbos Atoev of Uzbekistan in the semi-final of the 75 kg Middleweight category, by 7 points to 3 and was thus awarded the bronze medal. Vijender won the first round of the bout 1–0, only for Atoev to run rampant in the second, landing five unanswered blows. The third round was evenly contested with both fighters scoring on a couple of occasions, but Vijender had already lost the match. In September 2009, the International Boxing Association (AIBA) announced Vijender as the top-ranked boxer in its annual middle-weight (75 kg) category list. He topped the list with 2800 points. In January 2010, Vijender was awarded the Padma Shri award, for outstanding contribution to Indian sports.

He has made his family, his hometown and India proud :)