Uzbekistan’s boxers took a single medal at the London 2012 Olympic Games – a bronze – but at Rio 2016 they were among the contenders in nearly every category and won seven medals, more than any other country.
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Shields showed her trademark strength in the ring, never letting her opponent Nouchka Fontijn (NED) get ahead of her in the scoreboard.
Joined on the podium by bronze medallists Dariga Shakimova of Kazakhstan and China’s Li Qian, the fighter from Flint, Michigan, slipped the gold won in London four years ago around her neck to stand and sing the anthem. While Shields had been stalking Fontijn around the ring in the first round, in the second she changed her footwork – and in one artful sequence, she backpedaled smoothly out of trouble before landing a solid right on Fontijn.
“I don’t know. I don’t know what’s next”. I train as hard as I possibly can.
She pummeled Fontijn with sharp jabs and punches, taunting her at one point to bring it on. “So yesterday I made sure I ate two or three whole meals, and a lot of water”.
Then she grabbed an American flag from her father, Clarence Shields, who was sitting ringside, and ran a victory lap around the arena, the flag flying behind her like a superhero’s cape.
Shields came from a black pit to become an Olympic champion and that’s an incredible story. “I want to help people”.
She landed several times on Shields, but the American was starting to turn the screw and came out with real intent at the start of the third round. Shields won the gold medal for boxing in her weight category at the 2012 London Olympics.
Shields looks to be having fun as she shut down the once chanting audience in favor of Fontijn. Unlike in 1996 when I got started, the raw talent that entered into the first Women’s National Championship was high in talent but low in quantity.
You can also live stream Olympic matches from NBC here. “I just enjoy being able to show someone I can outbox them”. Shield shifted not only the pace of the fight, she immediately commanded control. From Shields and Biles to Simone Manuel, Michelle Carter, Ashleigh Johnson and many more, black women from the USA made history and took home gold in a stunning array of Olympic sports. “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”. Fontijn offered little resistance and the round served as little more than a coronation for the American face of women’s boxing. “I felt left out because I was like, wow, I’m the first woman to ever win an Olympic gold medal and I didn’t really get any recognition for it”, she said.
And to anyone who questioned her place in women’s golf. “Without that struggle”, she told ESPN, “I don’t think I would be as strong as I am”. Shields says she is aggressive in her attitude, which befits her as a boxer but the system does not approve of it. “I was like, ‘Hey, we are here to fight, ‘” Shields said.
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But she is not – not yet, at least – the most accomplished boxer in Olympic history. The fact that I won every round was awesome. Oliver Kirk won two gold medals in the bantamweight and featherweight titles in 1904.
