“Here people are very serious, always busy with work. They don’t laugh out loud as I do,” Rupa Bayor cracked up while recalling her journey from Arunachal Pradesh to Mumbai.
In her village of Sippi, Rupa would often be seen tilling the paddy fields on the banks of the Subansiri River. In Navi Mumbai now, the 25-year-old taekwondo athlete is No.6 in World Taekwondo (WT) rankings — the top ranked taekwondoin in Asia — aiming to win major medals for the country.
One of the finest exponents of her discipline in the country, Rupa has been slowly rising up the ladder in a sport where Indians haven’t exactly excelled at the highest level. For example, Surendra Bhandari is the only Indian to have won a medal (bronze in men’s 58kg at Busan 2002) at the Asian Games. But given Rupa’s ascent, she could well become the second, and first female, as she targets the Asiad in Japan in September-October.
“I am positive. The way I have been training, I have belief that I will be able to medal at the Asian Games. However tough the route may be, I am preparing for it,” says a very confident Rupa.
And there’s little reason to question her resolve, especially after a stupendous 2025. Following a gold at the Austrian Open in Vienna last June, she finished third at the WT President’s Cup (Oceania) in Gold Coast. At the Australian Open in the same city in August, Rupa finished second before taking the top prize at the Croatia Open in Zagreb in October 2025.
In her last event — the WT President’s Cup (Europe) at Innsbruck — Rupa ended third, making sure she never finished outside the podium the whole year. Her performances led her to become the first Indian to break into the top 10 of WT in Poomsae Under-30 rankings which led the sports ministry to include her in the Target Asian Games Group (TAGG) last year.
In fact, in a significant push to strengthen India’s combat sports pipeline, the sports ministry’s Mission Olympic Cell (MOC) on Wednesday gave the go-ahead to customised international exposure and coaching support for athletes in taekwondo and karate.
Rupa will be supported under the TAGG scheme until the Asian Games to ensure consistent tactical and technical support during the competition cycle.
In Poomsae, athletes do not fight a bout, instead they perform choreographed, standardised patterns of defense-and-attack techniques (kicks, blocks, punches) against imaginary opponents. While the category is not included in the Olympics, it is a medal event at the Asian Games.
“This is a very busy year. The Asian Championships are in May (in Mongolia). Then we have the World Championships (in Korea) and Asian Games (Japan) in September. Winning medals at these three big events is my main target,” said Rupa.
Interestingly it wasn’t in taekwondo that Rupa had her first exposure to martial arts. Having lost her father at a tender age, Rupa grew up in a joint family setup where her mother’s brother was a karate master.
“It was my uncle who started teaching me karate in the village when I was 11 or 12. But back then I had no idea that I would take this up professionally,” says Rupa. “I owe a lot to my uncle who taught me the basics of martial arts.”
Seeing Rupa’s potential, her uncle decided to make her ditch karate for taekwondo as the former wasn’t an Olympic sport. “We didn’t get many opportunities in karate. There was a bigger scope of growth in taekwondo which is why I made the switch in 2015,” said Rupa.
Rupa did brilliantly at the sub-junior and the junior levels, winning multiple medals and national titles. She continued her form at the senior level too, winning many national crowns. While she won a silver at the 2019 South Asian Games in Nepal in what was her first international event, her growth was halted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
When things started opening up, Rupa realised she needed to move out of Arunachal Pradesh if she wanted to attain loftier heights. She moved to Navi Mumbai in 2021 where she joined the Indo Korean Taekwondo Academy under coach Abhishek Dubey.
With more exposure, her performances kept getting better as she regularly reached the podium at international events 2022 onwards.
“In Arunachal, I used to dream of participating in international championships, never thinking of winning medals. When I came to Mumbai, I realised it was important to change my mentality. Now, I target big events,” said Rupa, who is supported by Welspun.
Currently, recovering from knee and hip injuries, Rupa is expecting to return to the mat soon.
“In our sport, we kick a lot and repeatedly to perfect it. Due to overuse, we can injure ourselves which is why I am undergoing rehab,” said Rupa. “It is common for a taekwondo athlete to be injured. What is important is that we recover properly.”
