Claressa Shields

Claressa Shields
Statistics
Rated at	Middleweight, 165 lb (75 kg)[1]
Height	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)[2]
Nationality	American
Born	(1995-03-17) March 17, 1995[2] Flint, Michigan, United States
Boxing record
Total fights	63
Wins	62 [3][4]
Wins by KO	18[5][6][7]
Losses	1[5]
Medal record Women’s boxing Competitor for the  United States Olympic Games 2012 London Middleweight World Championships 2014 Jeju Middleweight Pan American Games 2015 Toronto Light Heavyweight

Claressa Shields (born March 17, 1995)^[2] is an American boxer. In August 2012 she became the first American woman to win a boxing^[8] gold medal at the London Olympic games. She won the Olympic middleweight title by defeating Russian boxer Nadezda Torlopova 19–12 in London.

In May 2012, she qualified to compete at the 2012 Olympics, in the first year that women's boxing was an Olympic event.^[9] Shields was the youngest boxer at the February 2012 U.S. Olympic trials, where she won the 165-pound weight class.^[10][11]

Career

Shields was born and raised in Flint, Michigan, where she is a high school junior as of May 2012.^[1][10] She was introduced to boxing by her father, Bo Shields, who had boxed in underground leagues.^[10][12] Bo was in prison beginning when Shields was two years old, and released when she was nine. After his release, he talked to her about boxer Laila Ali, piquing her interest in the sport, although Bo nevertheless believed that boxing was a men's sport and refused to allow Shields to pursue it until she was eleven.^[10][12][13] At that time, she began boxing at Berston Field House in Flint, where she met her coach and trainer, Jason Crutchfield.^[12] Shields credits her grandmother with encouraging her not to accept restrictions based on her gender.^[10]

After winning two Junior Olympic championships, Shields competed in her first open-division tournament, the National Police Athletic League Championships, in fall 2011; she won the middleweight title and was named top overall fighter, as well as qualifying for the U.S. Olympic trials.^[2][14] At the trials in February, she defeated the reigning national champion, Franchon Crews; the 2010 world champion, Andrecia Wasson; and Pittsburgh's Tika Hemingway to win the middleweight class.^[2][10] In April, she won her weight class at the Women's Elite Continental Championships in Cornwall, Ontario, against three-time defending world champion Mary Spencer of Canada; she held an undefeated record of 25 wins and 0 losses at that point.^[10][12][15]

Following Shields' victory at the U.S. Olympic trials, it was initially reported that she would need only a top-8 finish at the 2012 AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships in Qinhuangdao, China, in order to qualify for the 2012 Olympics.^[11] On May 10, the day after the contest began but before Shields' first bout, a change to the rules was announced that meant Shields would need to place in the top two from the Americas.^[16] Shields won her first round, but suffered an upset loss in the second round on May 13 to Savannah Marshall of England, bringing Shields' record to 26-1.^[5] Her chances for qualification thus depended on Marshall's subsequent performance; after Marshall advanced to the middleweight finals on May 18, it was announced that Shields had earned an Olympic berth. She won a gold medal in the end, after beating Russian boxer Nadezda Torlopova 19–12.^[9][17]

In 2014, Shields won the World Championships.^[18]

In 2015, Shields became the first American to win titles in women's boxing at the Olympics and Pan American games.^[19]

Personal life

Claressa adopted her cousin's daughter.^[4]

She named the baby Klaressa. She adopted Klaressa in 2014 from her cousin, who already had two kids and was pregnant with a third and wanted to have an abortion due to the lack of money. Shields, meanwhile, had wanted a baby since she was 18 and talked her cousin into having the child and letting her adopt it. <http://boxingjunkie.usatoday.com/2015/10/25/with-her-life-in-order-claressa-shields-has-eye-on-second-olympic-gold-in-rio/>

References

Further reading

• Levy, Ariel (May 7, 2012). "A Ring of One’s Own". The New Yorker (New York: Condé Nast). 

External links

• Team USA: Claressa Shields
• The New York Times: Bout Time

2012 USA Olympic Boxing Team Men's athletes Rau'shee Warren Joseph Diaz Jose Ramírez Jamel Herring Errol Spence Terrell Gausha Marcus Browne Michael Hunter Dominic Breazeale Women's athletes Marlen Esparza Quanitta Underwood Claressa Shields Coaches —