Shields Wins Boxing Gold
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(LONDON, ENGLAND) – Seventeen-year-old Claressa Shields (Flint, Mich.) marked her place in the historic books with the first-ever Olympic gold medal in the women’s middleweight division. Shields concluded her run to gold with a 19-12 victory over Russia’s Nadezda Torlopova in the middleweight gold medal bout on Thursday at the ExCel Centre in London. The gold medal is the first for the United States since Andre Ward in 2004 and the first-ever in women’s action.
Shields, whose entertaining style has won many fans at the 2012 Olympic Games, fulfilled her Olympic dream with a third strong performance in London. The teenager came out disciplined in the opening round, feeling out her Russian opponent nearly double Shields’ age, and the bout was tied at three after two minutes of boxing. That was as close as Torlopova would get in the four round bout. Shields began utilizing her strong edge in hand speed to impose her will in the second and claimed a 10-7 advantage at the halfway mark. She continued to catch the Russian with strong shots and combinations in the third round on her way to a 15-10 lead with one round remaining. Shields extended her advantage to seven in the final two minutes en route to a 19-12 final decision and the middleweight gold medal.
This is something that I’ve wanted for a long time and when I felt that boxing
wasn’t going right and my life wasn’t going right, I always wanted a gold medal,” she said. “I just kept working toward it and people were saying that I couldn’t do it, that I was too young, that I’ll never do it. There were going to be girls that would beat me, that had more experience and I proved them all wrong.”
The Flint native dedicated her medal to her hometown and joins Flint boxers Andre Dirrell and Chris Byrd in winning Olympic hardware. Between the three of them, they own every color of medal with Shields completing the trifecta with her gold.
“It’s always dedicated to Flint, that’s where I’m from. It’s dedicated to my coach; he deserves it. He deserves it. He trains a lot of men at our gym but none of them want to dedicate themselves. I feel that USA needed it,” Shields said. “I’m just glad that someone got a gold medal because we were all in the gym together, we all sweat together, we all trained together, we all worked hard together so we all want to see each other succeed.”
The teenager qualified won the Olympic Trials at only 16, claiming both a gold medal and the Outstanding Boxer title at the February event. The Flint Northwestern High School student will return to school for her senior year with her own piece of history to share. Trained by Jason Crutchfield, out of FWC Berston, Shields has been boxing since the age of 11 and quickly took to the sweet science under Crutchfield’s tutelage. She is the youngest member of the U.S. Olympic Boxing Team at only 17.
Flyweight Marlen Esparza (Houston, Texas) received her bronze medal on Thursday as well, giving Team USA two medals in the three women’s weight divisions.
Shields’ championship bout concludes Olympic boxing action for Team USA.
