Shields, who is only 21, is the only US boxer to win two gold medals in a row; she earned her first at the age of 17 during the London 2012 Games, when she defeated Russia’s Nadezda Torlopova. Despite winning gold in London, Shields received fewer endorsements than her counterparts in other sports, though this time around, endorsements are coming in. Shields defeated Nouchka Fontijn of the Netherlands by unanimous decision to secure the gold for Team USA.
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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.
In Rio, just before the fight, Shields paced in her corner, coiled with energy, staring Fontijn down.
History will not soon forget Claressa Shields.
And Shields proved invincible. Shields closed out the round strongly to take the first round on the scorecards.
Fontijn set a pace moving around the ring, lobbing feeler punches toward Shields’ head. A chance to show the world what she was made of!
And to anyone who questioned her place in women’s golf.
Shields came from a black pit to become an Olympic champion and that’s an incredible story.
Shields knew long before the result was confirmed, and the winner’s hand raised by the referee, that the gold was hers. With her victory declared, she did a cartwheel in the ring. “She believes she is the greatest of all time”. The 21-year-old Flint, Michigan, native thumped Dutch fighter Nouchka Fontijn in convincing fashion to wrap up back-to-back middleweight gold.
She was nine years old before she knew her father. Born into poverty, she had lived in 11 homes before she reached the age of 12.
She reflected on that troubled past in a news conference right after her Olympic medal ceremony.
“I didn’t want to mess with no female boxers”, he said. “You fight in the streets, you get locked up”. “I want to see my sister and my little brother”.
When I spoke with Shields later, she admitted that the night before the final, she had a moment of panic. “I actually could have stopped her but I was having so much fun I was like, why do that?”
“The difference is, now that I’m grown, I make a lot of decisions in my life”, Shields said, earlier this week. “So what’s the problem?” When everybody thought Shields had become rich, there she was, going to a collection agency to pay her mother’s past-due water bill.
MEN’S VOLLEYBALL: Brazil, playing in its fourth straight Olympic title match, beat Italy 25-22, 28-26, 26-24 to win the gold medal. “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 chose to be great”. “I kind of protect myself. I can get out and do that and be safe doing it”.
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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. No deal with Nike. For as good as she’s been so far, the pinnacle of her career is likely still to come. She’s already looking after several family members.
