Flyweight (48-51 kilograms), Women

At 1.34PM on the 5th August 2012 Yelena Savelyeva of Russia flicked out a jab that grazed the gloves of North Korea’s Kim Hye-Song. In the normal course of affairs this would not be of any great note but in this case the significance came from its symbolism as the final breach of male exclusivity at the Summer Olympic Games. Boxing’s status as the only sport where women could not compete had ended by a decision of the AIBA in 2009.

At the London Games the gold medal winner was expected to come from a trio of women, world champion Ren Cancan of China, Great Britain’s Nicola Adams and Indian icon M. C. Mary Kom, with Adams having the twin advantages of being a natural flyweight, as opposed to the other two who had moved up from light-flyweight, and of fighting in front of a fiercely partisan crowd. Whether it was those advantages that proved decisive or simply that Adams was the better fighter mattered little as she won three clear points decisions on her way to becoming the first ever female Olympic boxing champion. She put on a particularly impressive display against Ren in the final and scored a knockdown as she recorded a decisive 16-7 victory.

By winning the bronze Mary Kom became only the third Indian woman to win an Olympic medal. Widely feted in her home country as a five-time World Champion, the mother of twin sons even had a Bollywood movie made about her life.