In a training hall at New Delhi's Indira Gandhi Stadium on Friday, Stephanie Pineiro pounds the heavy bag with just one thing on her mind. "I just want to win gold. Nothing else," says Pineiro, who will make her debut for Puerto Rico at the Women's Boxing World Championships on Saturday.
Just about an year back though, boxing was far from Pineiro's mind. At that time, the native of Baiyamo city, was dealing, like nearly every other Puerto Rican, with the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. While the death toll caused by the storm that struck the island on September 20 is still debated, it is estimated to have caused the deaths of nearly 3000 people, making it the worst natural disaster to affect Puerto Rico.
"Where do I start. It was so bad," says Ashleyann Lozada, who will represent Puerto Rico in the 57kg weight division.
"It was like nothing I have experienced. I live with my mother and grandparents in Baiyamo and I was very scared, both for myself and them, because my house was full of water. I lost almost all of my clothes, my shoes. It was really bad," says Pineiro. The storm caused severe infrastructural damage, estimated at some 90 billion dollars, across the Caribbean islands too. "Our boxing gym (in the coastal city of Toa Alta) was completely destroyed. So we didn't even have a place to train even if we wanted to," says Pineiro.
For a long time, Pineiro wasn't even sure whether her boxing partners and coaches were safe. "For a month, we stopped everything. None of our communication devices were working. So we couldn't even let each other know that we were safe. It was only after a month that we were able to speak to each other,' says Pineiro.
Unsure of what to do, Pineiro looked to find a measure of normalcy through boxing. "All my family - my brothers, my uncles and my dad were boxers, so it was natural for me to start. I only began as a hobby but it's everything to me now," she says.
With no place to train, Pineiro did what she could. "We don't have any gym, so I just did what I could in the house. I couldn't call my coach so I did what I knew. I just ran around the neighbourhood and streets. I just did a lot of running and shadow boxing and jumped rope," she says.
Formal training only resumed when Pineiro flew out of Puerto Rico to the USA. "My father brought me to the USA after a month. And there I was contacted by our team coach," she says.
Coach Elvin Gonzalez had also flown out of Puerto Rico to the USA and was trying his best to put the women's team together. "I knew that many of our women boxers would have left the islands and come to the USA, so I kept trying to call them," says Gonzalez.
They would eventually head back to Puerto Rico in order to prepare for the Continental and Central American Games in July this year. Pineiro would win a bronze medal at the Games, while compatriot Lozada won a gold. The victories were important not just personally but as a symbol for their devastated homeland.
"Puerto Rico has suffered a lot but we are recovering now," says Pineiro.
And at the World Championships Pineiro hopes to keep the good news coming for Puerto Rico. "We are here to make happy memories," she says.