The 21-year-old from Flint became the first American boxer to win two Olympic gold medals, and she made sure everyone knew it when she took the podium to accept the second while wearing the first.
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ESPN’s Dan Rafael writes that Shields, 21, dominated on Sunday against Nouchka Fontijn of the Netherlands, winning all four rounds on all three judges’ scorecards.
“When I started my quest for 2016, I decided that I have a great story to tell, and I want to inspire and help people”, she said.
“Boxing gave me the self-confidence that I didn’t have growing up”. I ate and I drank Powerade, a lot of water and I slept.
“She’s a really great fighter”, Shields said.
“I definitely think I’m the best fighter in the world here”, Shields said in a line comparable to Muhammad Ali’s “I am the greatest!”
A standing room-only crowd watched Shields’ fight at Flint’s Berston field house, where Shields learned to box. Let’s go. I hit you with a hard shot. “I remember when I was one of those little kids who didn’t have any hope”.
The award-winning film “T-Rex”, now available on Netflix, documents her life and came out after the London Olympic Games.
As a child, she was molested and raped, but “channeled all that anger into boxing, and that’s why I’m so successful at it”, she told ESPN The Magazine’s Body Issue 2016.
The American was building a lead and had her hands down in a sign the confidence was flowing through her, as the pair went at one another at the end of the round with a flurry of wild punches.
And to anyone who questioned her place in women’s golf. “I want to see my sister and my little brother”. I have to keep reminding myself these things. “I [didn’t] want to have a split decision”. Many consider her the best female boxer in the world.
Women’s boxing was introduced to the Olympics in 2012 and Shields, unbeaten since then, follows Britain’s Nicola Adams – who successfully defended her flyweight title on Saturday – as a double champion. “I actually could have stopped her but I was having so much fun I was like, why do that?” She has yet to lose a game since her win at the London Olympics, and it seems that there is no stopping the determined and talented teenager.
“She would be the first one here every time”, Crutchfield said.
With the win, Shields will become one of the biggest names in boxing. “Her hand speed is phenomenal”, Walsh said.
Soccer: Brazil won the medal it wanted the most Saturday, claiming its first Olympic gold in soccer and providing a lift to a beleaguered nation in the process. I don’t want to wake up right now.
“I’m just so happy and I prayed before I came here and I just knew God was with me”. They said you got that round three times so that meant I won the fight.
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Oddly, the boxing ring, where people pummel each other, was always her refuge. Mossely sprinted toward her man and made a golden leap into Yoka’s massive arms, just as she did after her victory. For athletes like Shields and Snyder – and indeed the vast majority of the more than 10,000 who gathered in Rio the last few weeks – the Olympics are the unquestioned pinnacle.
