And on Sunday she made sure no one else will either.
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Claressa Shields stood on the podium on Sunday afternoon with the Olympic gold medal hanging around her neck that she had just won in women’s boxing.
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.
Nor will they forget how she did it, pounding her way past the best women boxers in the world to win three unanimous decisions and all 12 rounds she fought in these Olympics.
Claressa Shields was golden for the second straight Olympic Games.
But though it might have looked easy, Shields insisted it wasn’t.
Flint Councilman Kerry Nelson said, “we are very proud of Claressa, I know her family is proud, but we as a city are very proud of her”.
Winning a gold medal at the Olympics is typically perceived as a pinnacle.
“I think I’m asleep”. “Every time I came back to the corner, they said, ‘You got that round”. “I worked so hard to get here”. She moved to the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., staying in a dorm. The only question now is where she goes from here. “I want to help people. I want to give people just a little bit of hope”. Shields closed the show in the fourth, opening the round with her hands down and begging Fontijn to come forward.
Shields had previously beaten Fontijn two months ago-with an injured hand and shoulder-to score her second world championship. She holed an 8-foot birdie putt on the 18th for a 69 to claim the silver by one shot over Shanshan Feng of China, who also shot 69. “But I want to inspire”. I don’t even feel like I’m up right now. Your life is based on your decisions.
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. That made these Games the best for a US team since 2000.
“From a group of young kids, it’s fantastic”, said U.S. Coach Billy Walsh, who was hired last winter to salvage a program that was floundering.
Officials later declared Shields the co-winner, a first in Olympic boxing, of the Val Barker prize awarded to the best fighter of the tournament.
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Numerous other medal winners from Rio, a competition overshadowed by a judging furor despite a change in the system, will doubtless re-emerge in the pro ranks – and possibly return now that the Games are open to paid fighters. Instead, she settled for a huge smile, fingering the medals that said more than words as the United States’ national anthem played for the first time at Rio’s boxing venue.
