Puducherry SSP becomes first IPS officer to win gold at Commonwealth powerlifting

It was in 2019 that Roy started strength training. However, she contracted Coronavirus in 2021 and was quarantined. “I realised that the most important thing in life was to stay healthy. I decided to concentrate greatly on fitness and competitive training,” she said. In 2022, she won the Delhi state level powerlifting championship.

When she thought her lifting career would sail through, she sustained a knee injury. “This made me realise that I will not be able to squat and deadlift. I started concentrating on bench press,” she said. In 2023 she won the National bench press championship held in Bengaluru to be nominated to the world bench press championship held in Texas. She didn’t win a medal because of a “technical flaw” in her lift. Life, however, had other plans as she lost her father to cancer in 2023.

“This was a major blow and I almost gave up on my lifting career,” she said, adding, “Mental focus is absolutely necessary to compete in powerlifting.”

She continued to lift weights to make her widowed mother Sumitra Roy smile, she said.  “When I won in the commonwealth bench press, she was the first one to congratulate me. I think my victory also brought back joy in her life,” she said.

“I was posted in the most difficult of positions from the very start of my policing career. So when I started competing, I made sure that I trained everyday, even if it were late at night,” Roy said. “I wanted to convey a message to women who have crossed their 40s that there is always time to care for oneself,” Roy said.