India, Sept. 3 -- Early on a Sunday morning in July, 17-year-old Janmoni Konwar was shaken awake by her frantic mother. The Brahmaputra River that marked the edge of their village, Bhogdoiporia, in Assam's Jorhat district, had begun a course of devastation.

The family of five barely had time to flee their bamboo-and-mud house for higher ground before their home was swept away. What crushed her, Konwar says, was the obliteration of her training ground, and of the fishery her family had just started to help fund her trip to Delhi.

That trip was in a few weeks. Konwar was reigning national karate champion in her category, set to defend her title at the 2026 All India Independence Cup Karate Championship.

Incredibly, that's exactly what sh...