Rio de Janeiro (AFP) – Boxer Claressa Shields says she wants to inspire a generation of downtrodden young Americans across the United States after retaining her middleweight title on Sunday at the Rio Olympics.
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It was gold. With that Sunday victory, Shields became the first USA boxer ever to win back-to-back gold medals. Fontijn opponents landed 8.6 total punches per round and 5.9 power shots.
Shields had a much stronger performance Friday’s semifinals than she did in Wednesday’s quarterfinals. She turned it up even further in the third round, peppering Fontijn with combinations and closing the round with a thunderous right hand in the final 20 seconds. After an emphatic first three rounds, the American was in a commanding position going in to the final two minutes, and despite Fontjn’s late rally, it was a unanimous decision for the defending champion. She gestured toward Fontijn to come fight in the fourth round.
Fontjin at least put up a fight against Shields, who had little trouble in her first two bouts in Brazil.
She couldn’t – not with the way that Shields slipped and ducked – Shields won every round against Fontijn. I’m a two-time Olympic gold medalist. “Oh my God, I feel like I’m dreaming. I even shocked myself when I pulled it out”. “I really can’t dwell on what I didn’t get”.
Two Olympics, two gold medals. “I’m not going to walk all the way over just to find I’m not going to eat anything and go back to my room”. I don’t remember getting hit throughout the fight.
“You have to go in there and seal the deal”, she said.
“I worked so hard to get here”, she said, struggling to keep her composure through a rush of both relief and excitement. “‘If you think you can bet me, let’s go”. Then she hopped down from the ring, grabbed a giant USA flag and circled the arena, flag held overhead, as if she were about to take flight. Because she can no longer stomach the food in the athletes village cafeteria after a month in Rio, she had consumed only a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich and some chocolate milk on the day before her first fight.
“I don’t know. I don’t know what’s next”.
Later, she explained, “People didn’t give me my recognition for doing it one time”. “Her hand speed is phenomenal”, Walsh said. Shields was dominant from the outset against the taller Fontijn, who was bidding to win the first Olympic boxing gold medal for the Netherlands since 1928.
Back home to Flint, to see her family. “It got to the point where I just shut everybody out”. I went out there and showed my class. “I was like, ‘You know what? I can’t believe I just did this”, Shields said.
With this win, Shields becomes the most successful U.S. Olympic boxer in history – the only one to win two gold medals.
“People will never forget that I am the first American boxer to win two Olympic [gold] medals”, she said. Jones was named the top boxer despite losing the gold-medal bout in scandalous fashion.
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“I just want to embrace every moment of my second Olympics, that’s why I made a decision to run around the whole ring with the flag”.
