Shiva Thapa is an Indian boxer who has won several medals in national and international competitions. He started his career in the Bantamweight category and later switched to the lightweight category. He is the youngest Indian male boxer to qualify for the Olympics. He was ranked 2nd in the AIBA international rankings in November 2015, becoming the highest-ranked Indian boxer.
Contents
Wiki/Biography
Shiva Thapa was born on Wednesday, 8 December 1993 (age 30 years; as of 2023) in Guwahati, Assam, India. His zodiac sign is Sagittarius. He was interested in sports since his childhood and played soccer and taekwondo. He later joined the Ulubari Boxing Club located in his neighbourhood. He enrolled at the Sports Authority of India (SAI), Guwahati at the age of 7 years to train in boxing. He used to watch Mike Tyson’s fights during his childhood and got inspired by him to become a boxer. His mother told him to focus on his studies; however, his father was supportive of him. He secured first division in the SSLC (10th level) exam and studied 11th and 12th standard at Poona College of Arts, Science and Commerce in Pune, Maharashtra while training boxing at Army Sports Institute (ASI), Pune. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree.
4 years old Shiva Thapa
Physical Appearance
Height (approx.): 5′ 6″
Weight (approx.): 60 kg
Hair Colour: Black
Eye Colour: Black
Body Measurements (approx.): Chest 40″, Waist 32″, Biceps 14″
Family
Parents & Siblings
His father’s name is Padam Thapa, and his mother’s name is Goma Thapa. His father is a Karate instructor, and his mother is a homemaker. He is the youngest of 6 siblings which include 1 brother and 4 sisters. His brother Govind Thapa is the eldest of them, and he was also a national-level boxer before joining the Indian Army. His 4 sisters are named Kavita, Ganga, Sita, and Gita. Three of his sisters played athletics, and one sister played badminton.
A family photo of Shiva Thapa
Wife & Children
He is unmarried and has no children.
Religion
He follows Hinduism.
Caste
He belongs to the Chettri (Kshatriya) caste of the Khas group.
Address
House No. 87, GMC Main Road, Birubari Bazar, Gopinath Nagar, Kamrup, Guwahati, 781016, Assam.
Career
Shiva trained under the coach Amar Deka at the Sports Authority of India (SAI), Guwahati and won gold in the All Assam Invitational Sub Junior Championship held in Titabar, Assam in 2004. In 2005, he won gold in the 21st Sub-Junior National Boxing Championship held in Noida. He beat a renowned boxer during that tournament which made him popular in his state and he was invited to join Army Sports Institute (ASI), Pune. He trained under the Mission Olympics and qualified for the 2012 London Olympics.
Shiva Thapa during the 2012 London Olympics
He has participated in various boxing tournaments for his state and country. He was supported by the Olympic Gold Quest and Anglian Medal Hunt Company from 2010 for its Vision 2016 program. Later, he was supported by the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), which first provided him with a scholarship, and he became an officer in 2022 at ONGC. After 2016, he trained at Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports, Patiala and also trains individually at a personal level in Sivasagar, Assam. He qualified for the 2012 London Olympics and the 2016 Rio Olympics; however, he could not win any medal for India. Initially, he fought in the Bantamweight category (53.5kg); however, after 2016, he moved to the lightweight category (60 kg).
Shiva Thapa at the Felicitation Program of Indian players of Rio Olympics 2016
In 2019, he moved to the 63 kg weight category after shuffling of weight categories by the International Boxing Association (AIBA) in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. He has won several medals and made many records throughout the course of his career.
Shiva Thapa (in red) fighting against a boxer in an international boxing tournament
In May 2022, he was selected as a member of the International Boxing Committee (IBA) Athletes Committee. He participated in the 2022 Commonwealth Games held in Birmingham, United Kingdom and lost to Scotland’s Reese Lynch in the round of 16.
Medals
Gold
- 2004: All Assam Invitational SubJunior Championship held in Titabar, Assam
- 2004: 30th Senior, Junior and Sub-Junior All Assam Inter District Boxing Championship held in Golaghat, Assam
- 2004: 1st Ko-Cup Sub-Junior National Boxing Championship held in Pune
- 2005: 21st Inter-District Sub-Junior and Senior Boxing Championship held in Kamrup, Assam
- 2005: 21st Sub-Junior National Boxing Championship held in Noida
- 2006: 22nd All Assam Inter District Boxing Championship held in Chirang, Assam
- 2007: 23rd Assam Inter District Boxing Championship held in Nazira, Assam
- 2008: Heydar Aliyev Junior Cup held in Baku, Azerbaijan
Shiva Thapa after winning gold in the Heydar Aliyev Junior Cup held in Baku, Azerbaijan
- 2008: 23rd Sub Junior National Boxing Championship held in Golaghat, Assam
- 2008: 24th Sub-Junior National Boxing Championship held in Gangtok
- 2011: 5th Super Cup Inter-Zonal Men National Boxing Championship held in Mumbai
- 2011: 58th Sahara Senior Men National Boxing Championship held in Karaikudi, Tamilnadu
- 2012: AIBA Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament held in Astana, Kazakhstan
Shiva Thapa with the gold medal he won at AIBA Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament held in Astana, Kazakhstan
- 2013: ASBC Asian Continental Championships held in Amman, Jordan
- 2015: Doha International Boxing Tournament held in Doha, Qatar
Shiva Thapa with the gold medal he won at Doha International Boxing Tournament in 2015
- 2016: 1st Elite Senior Men’s National Boxing Championship held in Guwahati
- 2016: 12th South Asian Games held in Shillong, Meghalaya
- 2017: 48th Grand Prix Boxing Tournament held in Usti Nad Labem, Czech Republic
Shiva Thapa (in red) with the gold medal he won at the 48th Grand Prix Boxing Tournament held in Usti Nad Labem, Czech Republic
- 2019: 2nd India Open International Boxing Tournament held in Guwahati, Assam
- 2019: 7th President’s Cup International Tournament held in Astana, Kazakhstan
Shiva Thapa after winning gold in the 7th President’s Cup International Tournament held in Astana, Kazakhstan
- 2019: Olympic Test event Boxing Tournament held in Tokyo, Japan
- 2021: 5th Elite Men National Boxing Championship held in Bellary, Karnataka
Silver
- 2010: World Youth Boxing Championship 2010 held in Baku, Azerbaijan
- 2010: 1st Youth Olympic Games held in Singapore
- 2011: Beogradski Pobednik Tournament held in Belgrade, Serbia
- 2011: 34th National Games held in Ranchi
- 2012: 43rd Grand Prix Czech Republic held in Usti Nad Labem, Czech Republic
- 2016: Asian & Oceanian Qualifying Event held in Qian’an, China
- 2017: ASBC Elite Asian Confederation Boxing Championship held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Shiva Thapa with the silver medal he won at ASBC Elite Asian Confederation Boxing Championship held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan
- 2017: 2nd Elite Senior Men’s Boxing Championship 2017- 2018 held in Visakhapatnam
- 2019: 4th Elite Senior Men’s Boxing Championship held in Solan, Himachal Pradesh
- 2019: 38th Gee Bee Cup Boxing Tournament held in Helsinki, Finland
- 2021: 31st Asian Amateur Boxing Championship held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates
- 2022: ASBC Asian Elite Boxing Championships held in Amman, Jordan
Bronze
- 2006: 22nd Sub-Junior National Boxing Championship held in Jamshedpur
- 2008: IV Children of Asia Games held in Yakutsk, Russia
- 2009: AIBA World Junior Boxing Championship 2009 held in Yerevan, Armenia
- 2013: Konstantin Korotkov Memorial International tournament held in Khabarovskovsk, Russia
- 2015: Asian Confederation Boxing Championship held in Bangkok, Thailand
- 2018: India Open International Boxing Tournament held in New Delhi
- 2018: Ulaanbaatar Cup held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
- 2019: Asian Boxing Championship held in Bangkok, Thailand
- 2020: 71st Stranja Cup Boxing International Tournament held in Stranja, Sofia, Bulgaria
- 2020: Alexis Vastine Memorial International Boxing Tournament held in Nantes, France
Controversy
A controversy erupted when Shiva Thapa turned up at the 2016 Rio Olympics without India written on the back of his jersey. The conducting officials told him that he would be disqualified and would not be allowed to participate in the event and told him to arrange a jersey with the name of the country written on the jersey. The matter was resolved just a few hours before his fight, and he was allowed to fight in the ring.
Awards
- The Best Sports Person of The Year by Assam Sports & Cultural Festival in 2010
- Bharat Ratna Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi Trophy by Assam Sports Journalists Association in 2010
- Breakthrough Performance of the Year at the 2nd India International Sports Summit in 2011
Shiva Thapa with the Breakthrough Performance of the Year award in 2011
- ICC Sports Excellence Award in 2013
Shiva Thapa’s father (centre) received ICC Sports Excellence Award on his behalf in 2013
- Assamese of the Year award instituted by News Live in 2013
- J. N. Award by Calcutta Chamber of Commerce in 2013
- JRMD Goenka Memorial Public Charitable Trust Award in Boxing in 2013
- Most Popular Sports Person of Assam Award in 2015
- Gorkha Gaurav Award from Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangh in 2015
Shiva Thapa’s parents (extreme left) receiving the Gorkha Gaurav Award from Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangh on his behalf
- Arjuna Award in 2016
Shiva Thapa received Arjuna Award from then-Indian President Pranab Mukherjee in 2016
- UBC Best Sports Person of 2016 award in 2017
Shiva Thapa with the UBC Best Sports Person of 2016 award
- The Best Sports Person of the Year by the Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal in 2017
Facts/Trivia
- In 2013, he became the youngest and the third Indian boxer to win a gold medal in the Asian Boxing Championship.
A poster of Shiva Thapa
- He has won six medals in the ASBC Asian Elite Boxing Championships, making him the most successful male boxer in the championship.
- In 2011, he became the first Assam boxer to win a medal in a senior boxing tournament.
- In 2008, he became the first Indian boxer to win a gold medal in the Hyder Aliyev Cup.
- When he won the gold in Hyder Aliyev Cup in 2008, his fans nicknamed him Shiva Ali after the American boxer Mohammad Ali.
- He used to wake up at 3 am in the morning to balance his boxing training and studies.
- He was good at studies and topped his classes many times.
- He listens to English, Nepali, Hindi, and Assamese music and prefers music over lyrics in the songs.
- During his childhood, he used to wake up at 3 am and run 3 km and do a mixture of a hundred push-ups, sit-ups and pull-ups. When he started training at the Army Sports Institute, Pune, he would do rope skipping 3000 times, 500 push-ups, 1000 crunches, and ran 18 km every day.
Shiva Thapa (extreme right) training at NIS institute in Patiala
- When Shiva was 10 years old, he won a sit-up test at SAI Guwahati by doing more than 1000 sit-ups.
- When he was 14 years old, he once forgot his phone in an autorickshaw.
- He starts his day by consuming a few almonds (soaked overnight, peeled) and water before training. His breakfast includes Dalia, fruits, bread, and eggs. He eats fruits every 2-3 hours and drinks a lot of energy drinks. He eats dinner at 7 pm which includes boiled chicken and soup or some protein shake in case he doesn’t eat chicken.
Do what keeps you motivated 🥊 #nodaysoff 🙏🏻 pic.twitter.com/2CiM2Dfi5N
— Shiva Thapa (@shivathapa) June 25, 2019
- During the 21st sub-junior national boxing championships held in 2005 in Noida, he was prepared to fight in the 36 kg weight category; however, an official wrongly said that there was no 36 kg weight category in the event following which he competed in the 38 kg weight category. He drank 2 litres of water and won the gold in the 38 kg weight category.
- During his childhood, he was allowed to watch TV for only 30 minutes and had to go to bed by 10 pm.
- His favourite TV series are Sherlock Holmes, Breaking Bad, and Narcos.
- In December 2015, he became one of the only 4 boxers chosen by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for the $800 monthly scholarship until the 2016 Rio Olympics along with $5000 for the transportation charges to the Olympic qualifying events.
- His father sold his small furniture factory and house and took a loan to support his training.
- He has played in the 2014 and 2018 editions of the World Series of Boxing (WSB). In 2014, he played for USA Knockouts, and in 2018, he played for the Indian Tigers.
Shiva Thapa (wearing red cap) during a posedown of the 2014 World Series of Boxing (WSB)
Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn