Garima Chaudhary

Born to parents hailing from a middle class family, Chaudhary was inclined to sports during her childhood. She was good at sports such as kabaddi, athletics and cricket. While Chaudhary's father remained concerned about her education, her mother constantly supported her interest in sports. She represented her native state of Uttar Pradesh initially. Due to lack of suitable support from the state's sports association, she began representing Haryana in national-level competitions.

Since 2004, Chaudhary has been training with Jiwan Sharma and Divya Sharma at Patiala-based National Institute of Sports. Due to lack of proper facilities, she had to practice with boys. Chaudhury found this to be a good way to train. Sharma says that attributes such as self-belief, hard work and a winning attitude are Chaudhary's strengths.

She participated at the 2011 World Judo Championships held in Paris and at the World Cup as a part of her qualification for the 2012 Summer Olympics. At the 2012 Asian Judo Championships held in Tashkent, she finished seventh in the 63 kg category. As a result of her performances, she earned 34 points and the eligibility to represent India at the London Olympics.

In order to prepare for the Olympics, Chaudhary trained in Germany and France. She underwent a more competition-oriented training, studied her opponents, and focused on specific fitness aspects.

In the first elimination round of the Women's (63 kg) category at the 2012 London Olympics, Chaudhary was defeated by Yoshie Ueno by an Ippon in 81 seconds. Although this ended her challenge at the Olympics, India's sports administrators felt that she is a good medal prospect at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games and the Incheon Asian Games — both in 2014.