He won six in Rio, five of them gold to increase his Olympic-record gold total to 23 and his overall total to 28.
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If Dariga can pull off an Olympic upset (there have been a lot of those, lately) then she’ll face the victor of the fight between China’s Li Qian, 26, and the Netherlands’ Nouchka Fontijn, 28, on August 21.
As the crowd at the Berston field house dispersed after the fight, some openly hoped that Claressa Shields would try to win another gold medal in four years at the next Olympics in Tokyo. “I don’t think she has the tools to beat me, but I’m sure she went home and worked on a few things, and I worked on a few things as well”.
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. So I was like, you know what?
“I wanted it to be known that I’m not just a great female boxer”. When she became the first USA woman to win a boxing gold medal, defeating Russian Nadezda Torlopova in the middleweight division, her story became Olympic legend.
“I give it A minus”, said the 21-year-old fighter from Flint, Michigan.
“Girl you made us proud and you showed us what Flint strong is all about”, Weaver said. But Fontijn showed herself to be elusive, bobbing out of the way of some of Shields’ most unsafe blows. She was a great opponent, she is someone I always want to fight.
She jumped up and down, yelling encouragement, while sharing the moment on Facebook Live as her big sister Claressa Shields competed at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. “I am not going to make any predictions about what I can and cannot run but I’m excited about running more marathons in the future”.
Shields’ road to Rio has been unlike many other Olympic athletes. And after the gold medal was placed around her neck on the podium, Shields slipped her 2012 gold medal with the purple ribbon from her US jacket pocket and put that on, as well.
“She would be the first one here every time”, Crutchfield said.
But when it comes time to box for an actual gold, Shields has no peer.
Shields, who was just 17 when she triumphed in London, paraded around the Rio ring screaming with an American flag fluttering behind her having defeated Nouchka Fontijn of the Netherlands on unanimous points.
Brazil’s volleyball team won another sensational gold right next door to where Neymar and Co. did it less than 24 hours earlier in a thrilling penalty shootout against 2014 World Cup champion Germany. It was massive. She said, ‘You’re trying to build a team.’ Exactly. “I woke up today and my body was feeling great”. Oliver Kirk won two gold medals in the bantamweight and featherweight titles in 1904.
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Shields dominated the first women’s boxing tournament in London and was again the class of the middleweight division in Rio. “She’s making her mark”. “And just when I got just a little bit, look how far I’ve been able to come!”
