Shields became the first USA boxer ever to win back-to-back Olympic gold medals with her third unanimous decision victory of the Olympic Games in the women’s middleweight final with the Netherlands’ Nouchka Fontijn.
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Her final bout in Rio de Janeiro was the culmination of a four-year stretch in which she hasn’t lost a fight and has rarely even been tested – certainly not yet at the Rio Olympics, where top female fighters only must win three bouts to claim gold. Shields beat Fontijn back in May to win her second consecutive Women’s World Championship.
She was the caregiver in her family, often giving up her own meals so her brother and sister could eat. Rupp became the first American to medal in this event since Keflezighi won silver in 2004.
Shields has spoken passionately in the past about her tough upbringing in Flint, an economically depressed city in MI which suffered badly with the drastic downturn in the American auto industry and has been embroiled in a water-contamination crisis.
“The thing about Claressa, when she’s smiling and joking around, that’s when she’s the most unsafe”, he said. “It got to the point where I just shut everybody out”.
In Rio, just before the fight, Shields paced in her corner, coiled with energy, staring Fontijn down. I have a nephew who I don’t want to grow up there because he may be shot or killed just because of the gang violence.
International Boxing Association President Ching-Kuo Wu attended all 16 days of the Olympic boxing tournament, and he believes Rio de Janeiro saw the best competition ever staged at the games.
Later, she explained, “People didn’t give me my recognition for doing it one time”. The fact that I won every round was awesome.
It was gold. With that Sunday victory, Shields became the first USA boxer ever to win back-to-back gold medals.
“Hopefully, I’m a household name now”, Shields said, “which I don’t doubt!”
Meanwhile, a change in NCAA Division I rules that took effect last August created an Operation Gold-type exception for athletes from countries other than the United States. You know not everybody can be an Olympic gold medalist.
“If I go back to Ethiopia, maybe they will kill me”, Lilesa said. I worked on a few things also.
Add in circumstances like those faced by someone like Shields, for whom boxing and the Olympics represented an escape in its most literal form, and you have the underpinnings that keep us coming back to an enterprise that can be maddeningly corrupt. She has said that it was her grandmother who pushed her. Although he no longer trains her, they still communicate regularly and he wants to see her succeed in life outside of the ring.
“At London I knew I was going to win and I knew I was going to win here”, Shields told reporters after the unanimous decision over Nouchka Fontijn of the Netherlands. “I was like, ‘Can you actually do this?'” she said.
“I don’t really have too big of a secret”, Snyder said. “I want to go home”.
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“I think, if anything, my secret is that instead of thinking about winning and thinking about gold medals and stuff like that, I try to value just my effort, value my improvement and value the love that I have for the sport”.
