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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Flint residents are celebrating local hero, boxer Claressa Shields, who won her second gold medal on the final day of the Rio Olympics. In London four years ago, she won her first gold as a skinny 17-year-old who got by on her frightening speed and preternatural talent. When she became the first US woman to win a boxing gold medal, defeating Russian Nadezda Torlopova in the middleweight division, her story became Olympic legend.
“I didn’t do it?” she asked reporters after beating Kazakhstan’s Dariga Shakimova by unanimous decision in the women’s middleweight (75 kg) semifinals. 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. With the first three rounds won, the defending champion remained focussed, and though Fontijn won the last two minutes, Shields had already earned a unanimous victory and a place in American boxing folklore.
She moved in with Crutchfield and his family when she was 13 and, for the first time in her young life, experienced some stability. I don’t want to wake up right now. “Oh my God, I can’t believe I just said that”, she exclaimed. I had fun the last round and I landed a lot of big shots. So I was like, you know what? Claressa Maria Shields lived up to expectations with gold in the women’s middleweight category while fast rising youngsters Nico Hernandez and Shakur Stevenson justified their billing by clinching light-flyweight bronze and bantamweight silver respectively. Your life depends on your decisions and it depends on what you want to do. “I’m definitely going to get my next one”.
“It was just to be smart, use my jab and land the right hand when I could”, Shields said of her strategy. They needed to push her – to make sure she stayed the aggressor.
However in the ring, Shields is free to unleash her power.
“I worked so hard to be here”, she said. I ate and I drank Powerade, a lot of water and I slept. “I showed I was the better, stronger and more skilled fighter”, Shields said.
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. A picture of Shields wearing her gold medal from the 2012 London Olympics hangs above the front door of the field house. She was the only female boxer from the United States to come away from the Olympic Games with gold. “I just enjoy being able to show someone I can outbox them”.
The odds are on her to go back-to-back. She used to tell her coaches that she needed to spar against boys, but they would say no.
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“I went around with the flag because in 2012 I held all my excitement”. Since then, she has won three World Championships, which led her to qualify for this year’s Rio Olympics where she has been one of the many Black female athletes slaying on worldwide television showing the world that the power of the Black Women can and never will be suppressed.
