Shiva Thapa Biography

Shiva Thapa is an Indian boxer. He was born on 8th December 1993 in Guwahati, Assam and belongs to the Indian Gorkha community. Shiva Thapa does his training at the Pune-based Army Sports Institute and he is supported by the Anglian Medal Hunt Company and the Olympic Gold Quest, a non-profit foundation which identifies and supports Indian athletes. He qualified for the 2012 London Olympics, making him the youngest Indian boxer to qualify for the Olympics.

Shiva Thapa was born to Padam Thapa and was the youngest out of six siblings. His father, who is a karate instructor and his elder brother, Gobind Thapa, who is a state-level winner boxer, were Shiva’s inspiration to become a boxer along with Mike Tyson’s bouts. Shiva showed keen interest in boxing since the age of seven and at first he practiced in his living room. He used to get up early morning and practice balancing his studies and training.

His father noticed his talent and made sure he got all he needed for his training. It wasn’t easy for Shiva’s father to support his training and other related things because of their large family and a low monthly expenditure. The family was relieved when Olympic Gold Quest decided to support Shiva as part of their Vision 2016 plan for Olympics.

Career

In 2008, Shiva won a Bronze medal in his category at the Children of Asia International Sports Games in Moscow. The same year he won a Gold medal at the Haider Aliyev Cup. Seeing his performance, Shiva represented India in the 52 kg weight category at the 2009 Junior World Boxing Championships in Armenia. He won a bronze medal.

In the 2010 Asian Youth Boxing Championships in Tehran, Shiva’s performance was low and he didn’t reach the semifinals.

At the 2010 Youth World Amateur Boxing Championship, Shiva Thapa was part of the Indian team as many participated to qualify for the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics. Thapa ended up with a silver medal in the Championship due to an injured fist in the semifinal bout. At the Summer Youth Olympics, Shiva won a silver medal in the 54 kg category in the finals.

He qualified for the 2012 London Summer Olympics and was the youngest Indian boxer to qualify for Olympics.

On 9th July 2013, Shiva became the youngest boxer from India to win a Gold medal at the 2013 Asian Championships which were held in Amman, Jordan.