American teenager Claressa Shields has won the inaugural women’s 75kg middleweight crown at London 2012.
Shields, from Flint, Michigan, becomes the second youngest boxer ever to win Olympic gold.
Fellow American John Fields was 16 when he won the featherweight title at the 1924 Games in Paris.
She also doubled her nation’s boxing medals tally at these Games – the only other United States fighter to have claimed a prize is lightweight bronze medallist Marlen Esparza.
From learning about icons to becoming part of black history herself, Olympic gold medalist and Flint native Claressa Shields continues to urge childfen to strive for more.
Movie goers at the SXSW Film Festival March 13-18 in Austin, Texas will have a chance to see Shields’ story on film, with three screenings of the documentary “T-Rex,” by filmmakers Drea Cooper and Zackary Canepari.
Ariel Levy, “A Ring of One’s Own : Can a teen-age Olympic hopeful remake the image of women’s boxing?”, New Yorker, May 7, 2012.
For the full article, see Robert Acosta, “Olympic gold medalist Claressa Shields talks in Burton about being part of black history”, MLive, March 7, 2015.
Scott Atkinson, “The Greatest (Woman) of All Time“, Hour Detroit, April 2018. Flint boxer Claressa Shields may have Olympic gold medals under her belt, but she’s just getting started