Two seasons back, Hooda bagged a quota for the Paris Olympics in 57kg after a bronze medal at the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games. However, barely seven months later in the lead up to the Games, she was found guilty of flouting the anti-doping code and suspended by the World Anti Doping Agency for 22 months.

A whereabouts ban is imposed when an athlete misses three surprise tests within a year.

However, the ban was back dated by eight months, meaning the suspension lasted just over a year.

Hooda returned to competition at this month’s BFI Cup in Chennai and won the 60kg title — an Olympic division — to earn a spot in the national camp. She will next compete in the World Boxing Cup Final in Greater Noida (Nov 14-21), her first international outing since the return.

“I am excited but there’s also some fear and nervousness. Doing well at this tournament is very important as it will give me a fair idea of where I stand. That will be a good indicator as I build up for next year’s Commonwealth Games and Asian Games,” the 25-year-old said.

Time away from the sport was not easy. Hooda mostly stayed at her Rohtak home for three months before resuming training at the Star Boxing Club. Six months into training, Hooda injured her right shoulder and took five months to recover.

The bigger challenge, however, was mental. With her Asian Games medal taken away and the stigma of a banned athlete attached to her, Hooda was faced with prolonged phases of regret. “Every athlete dreams of competing at the Olympics and I had worked really hard to get that quota. But when the ban happened, I realised all my efforts had gone to waste. I was really angry at myself for not checking my emails. It was an inadvertent error that cost me the Olympics,” she said.

“I knew I had to start from scratch. I took my time. I was in constant touch with the national camp’s psychologist. I slowly picked myself, told myself that setbacks are necessary sometimes. My Paris dream ended prematurely but I knew I had LA in front of me. That motivated me. I now take my own decisions and manage my own training.”

During her time away from boxing, Hooda worked on her technical and tactical game. She watched videos of Irish boxer Katie Taylor as well as Nikhat Zareen and Lovlina Borgohain.

“I also watched some videos of my international opponents. It appeared they would be a little tough to tackle. Watching from the outside is very different to being in the ring. Earlier, I used to rely on counters a lot, but I have now worked on being more aggressive and bettering my ring craft. The focus is now on landing the first punch.”