In the United States, USA Boxing organized its first-ever U.S. Olympic team women’s boxing trials and scheduled them to be held at the Northern Quest Resort & Casino in Airway Heights, Washington, near the city of Spokane. Set to run from February 13 to 19, 2012, twenty-four women were qualified to compete at the boxing trials—limited to the three Olympic weight classes. Additionally, as a double-elimination bout, each woman had two chances to advance.
The women invited to the trials had won a berth by successfully completing the qualifying tests as top competitors in the 2011 Pan American Games, USA Boxing National Championships, the National Golden Gloves Championships, or the National PAL Championships. Among the competitors was a then sixteen-year-old boxing machine from Flint, Michigan, named Claressa Shields, who had won the PAL championships—her first competition in the women’s open division. (She had previously won two USA Boxing Junior Olympic gold medals.)
Shields had begun boxing as an eleven-year-old, having listened to her father talk about Laila Ali. A former boxer on an underground boxing circuit and ex-con, he didn’t really want her to go into boxing, but he eventually relented. By then, Shields was living with her grandmother, having endured horrific abuse as a young child while her father was in prison.
In the gym at the Berston Field House, Shields worked harder than everyone else, with trainer Jason Crutchfield who not only helped mold her as a fighter but provided her with a level of stability she didn’t have bouncing from home to home in Flint—especially after her grandmother died of cancer in 2010. She was also an A student, wrestling with Advanced Placement classes in between her competitions.
Along with Shields, the women who competed had fought hard-won contests to appear at the Olympic trials and also defied the long odds of battling through the lingering doubts about the sport and whether women should fight at all. Queen Underwood, twenty-seven, from Seattle, Washington, who entered the trials as the Pan American Games representative, was also a five-time national champion who had been boxing competitively since 2006.
Underwood was receiving a lot of press coverage, and there were those who thought her explosive boxing style meant that she would be a sure winner all the way to the Olympic podium. She’d seen the sport evolve since her first championship and had a lot of experience with international competition, but as a competitor she too wrestled with appalling childhood experiences, in her case at the hands of her abusive father.
Marlen Esparza, twenty-three, had been boxing over half her life—and had the medals to prove it. Boxing out of Houston, Texas, she’d actually taken a year off to build up her body from her normal weight at 106 pounds to compete as a flyweight at 112 pounds. In terms of confidence, she had it in abundance, crediting a strong family, great home life, and the support of an extended network in and around the sport.
As the Olympic trials proceeded, Esparza, Underwood, and Shields gave dominating performances. Shields, who would be turning seventeen in March, shocked the assembled crowds, press, and fans at home watching the fights via the Internet, with her hard shots and laser focus. She also shocked her opponents, champions all, who went down in defeat by wide margins.
By then end of the competition, Esparza, Underwood, and Shields were crowned as the three Olympic trials champions—an historic first in the history of boxing—and as winners each of them would represent the United States at the qualifying event in China scheduled for May.
The next test for the three women was for each to successfully win one of the coveted twelve slots in each of their weight classes. However, contesting for a spot was not only a matter of qualifying in China. A quota system had been set up by the AIBA, which designated the number of spots to be allotted from five separate regions: Africa, America (northern and southern hemispheres), Asia, Europe, and Oceania.
Furthermore, points were allotted for each weight class and assigned on a region-by-region basis. The rationale for this was to balance out the participants so that no one country or region could dominate at the expense of others. Additionally, a tripartite commission was set up that would allow the national Olympic committees to petition for additional spots based on the points allotted by region.
In all, twenty-four spots were available to fighters who met the quota allotments, and the tripartite commission would award the additional eleven places, based on the merits of the member petitions. The last remaining spot would be offered to the United Kingdom as host nation.
Based on the quota for the Americas, there were a total of five spots available: two for flyweight, two for middleweight, and one for lightweight. For the flyweight and middleweight divisions, this meant that boxers had to be ranked first or second relative to the other fighters in their weight class fighting for countries in the American region. Boxers in the lightweight division had to come in ahead of everyone in their region.
By the end of the tournament, although neither Esparza nor Shields had medaled—with Shields suffering her first loss to England’s Savannah Marshall—both won a coveted place as Olympians because they ranked within the top two for the America region. As for Queen Underwood, while she placed second for the Americas, it was not enough to gain her a berth, which meant she had to wait on the petition to the tripartite commission. Canadian middleweight fighter Mary Spencer had also failed to qualify.
At the conclusion of the qualifying competitions, countries scrambled to submit petitions to the tripartite commission on behalf of their fighters. While it took some time, the announcement of the remaining eleven Olympians was made in mid-June, based in part on who AIBA deemed worthy of inclusion as a result of their record of achievement. Among the women awarded spots were Queen Underwood, Canada’s Mary Spencer, China’s Cheng Dong, and Sweden’s Anna Laurell. All were previous medalists in AIBA competitions.
With the Olympics set to begin at the end of July, in the United States Esparza, Underwood, and Shields became the darlings of the media—although that did not necessarily translate into additional sponsorship opportunities. Marlen Esparza was the exception and was the recipient of rather generous sponsorship from the likes of Cover Girl, Nike, and Coca-Cola, including her appearance in national advertising campaigns. Her image even appeared on Coca-Cola cans as part of a series of images that advertised different Olympic sports.
Other issues also surfaced. USA Boxing did not hire a head coach until a month before the Games. The coach they hired, Basheer Abdullah, was well respected in the sport, but he had worked a corner in a professional bout in March, breaking an AIBA rule that stated coaches had to have at least a six-month interval between a professional and an amateur fight. This meant that he was disqualified from actually being in the ring with any of the Olympic fighters. In USA Boxing as a whole, there were also a number of individual fighters’ coaches who did not have the credentials needed to assist during the matches.
Regardless, the excitement generated by the debut of female boxers in the Games seemed to trump any of these problems. Esparza, Underwood, and Shields—along with the thirty-three other first-time Olympic women’s boxers—were never prouder than when they first walked through the Olympic stadium during the opening ceremonies.
As the Games got underway, the women’s preliminary bouts were set to begin on August 5, 2012, with the quarterfinals on the following day. For the first day of competition in the flyweight division, top seed Ren Cancan from China, number two seed Nicola Adams from the United Kingdom, and Marlen Esparza each had byes, meaning they automatically advanced to the quarterfinals.
In the quarterfinals Ren and Esparza both advanced easily, setting themselves up to meet in the semifinals. Nicola Adams handily defeated her opponent to meet the intrepid Mary Kom who had come up in weight in order to qualify as a flyweight. She’d also easily won her preliminary and quarterfinal bouts.
In the lightweight division, top seed Katie Taylor and Russia’s Sofya Ochivava, who was considered a real contender for a medal and the number two seed, also advanced on a bye. Queen Underwood, h
owever, fought in a preliminary contest against Great Britain’s Natasha Jonas. It was the first time the fighters had met in the ring, and Natasha Jonas won the day by the score of 21-13, despite Underwood’s valiant efforts.
Speaking to a reporter about her loss, Underwood fought back tears at having put so much of her life into obtaining the goal of being an Olympian and said of her historic role, “I don’t think it’s enough.”[10]
Jonas fell to Katie Taylor in Taylor’s dominating performance in the quarterfinals, while Ochigava had won her match to get into the semifinal rounds.
In the middleweight division, top seed Savannah Marshall, number two seed Nadezda Torlopova from Russia, Claressa Shields, and Mary Spencer all advanced with byes. In the quarterfinals, both Marshall and Spencer lost, leaving Shields to face Kazakhstani boxer Marina Volnova in the semifinals, and Torlopova to face China’s fearsome Li Jinzi.
On August 8, in the semifinals, Marlen Esparza fell in a closely contested bout against Ren Cancan by the score of 10-8. Esparza had previously lost to Cancan in the quarterfinals of the qualifying competition in May. Regardless, she won the first Olympic boxing medal by any American woman—a bronze. Speaking shortly after the bout she said, “I can’t be anger [sic] about getting any medal at all but [bronze] wasn’t my goal.”[11]
In another low-scoring historic battle, Nicola Adams defeated the venerable Mary Kom by the score of 11-6. Kom—who’d actually contested in the first AIBA international women’s championships—said afterwards, “Adams was very clever, a counter-puncher but, although she carried power, she wasn’t very tactical.”[12] Kom brought home a bronze medal.
As expected, Katie Taylor put on a dominating performance, defeating Mavzuna Chorieva from Tajikistan—which gave Chorieva the bronze. Also as expected, Ochigava handily defeated Brazilian fighter Adriana Araujo, giving Brazil a coveted medal for women’s boxing.
Middleweight Claressa Shields dominated again, defeating Volnova soundly by the score of 29-15, while Russian fighter Torlopova squeaked through 12-10 win over her opponent, Li.
By the finals the next day on August 9, the sold-out crowd of ten thousand at the ExCel Arena, where all of the boxing matches were held, was in a frenzy. The noise level at the venue had already surpassed anything on record as British boxing-mad fans waited for Nicola Adams to take to the ring in her battle against Ren Cancan, which would decide the historic first gold and silver medals to be awarded to female boxers in the history of the Games. Adams, who made her home in Liverpool, had previously lost to Cancan in the finals at the qualifying championship, but was buoyed by the crowds chanting her name as she entered the arena.
From the moment the bout started, Adams was unrelenting in her attack and even managed to send Cancan to the canvas in the second round after tagging her with a left hook. After a dominating third round, Adams finished the job with a flurry of punches, winning the gold. Of her win she said, “I can’t believe I’ve actually done it. I’ve been dreaming about this moment since I was 12 years old. It’s a fairytale ending for me.”[13]
In the next bout, Katie Taylor went to work on Sofya Ochigava to the roar of the crowd who was already wild with anticipation of a Taylor win. It was a somewhat messy, low-scoring fight, but after two rounds, Taylor was down on the scorecards: 4-3. In the third round, Taylor worked hard and caught her opponent with some hard shots—pulling up on the scorecard by the end of the round. Both women hung tough in the fourth round with the crowd willing Taylor to win as they shouted her name. Just at the end of the round Taylor got caught and went down, but bounded back and let loose just enough to pull out the win and the gold by the score of 10-8. Winning the gold medal was an amazing triumph for her, and after the win was announced she ran laps around the ring with the Irish flag draped around her shoulders.
For the third and final match, Claressa Shields, still in shock at winning her semifinal bout, was nothing less than a poised professional as she came into the ring to fight her thirty-three-year-old opponent, Nadezda Torlopova. The match was pure Shields as she used her power punches and high-spirited antics to dominate the bout—despite a 3-3 score in the first round—winning the gold by a score of 12-10. With her victory, she raised her arms and leapt in triumph with a smile that radiated with the energy of the sun.
In the final medal count for men’s and women’s USA boxing at the Olympics, Shields won the only gold medal and, along with Marlen Esparza’s bronze medal performance, won the only two medals for the team.
With the outstanding performances and incredible support of the crowds at the ExCel arena, a new era in boxing had been born. Perhaps most fitting of all was the appearance of Barbara Buttrick at the arena who said of the Games, “When I was around, I would never have dreamed women boxers would ever get into the Olympics. But now they’ve got that credibility and that will bring a lot more girls into it because they’ll feel more comfortable going into a gym.”[14]
Buttrick’s words proved prophetic, as girls all over the world, inspired by the Olympics, have entered the gym at record numbers to pick up the gloves.
1. Wayne Coffey. “Ladies Night with a Punch.” Daily News, April 7, 1995, n.p. [Nydailynews.com]
2. Brian Gomez. “Exclusion from Olympic Games Frustrates Women Boxers.” The Gazette, n.d., n.p. [www.actove.com]
3. “Women’s Boxing Proposed for Games.” ESPN Boxing. February 18, 2009, n.p. [ESPN.com]
4. Dan Newling. “Jowell’s Fight to Bring Female Boxing to London Olympics.” Daily Mail, February 15, 2009, n.p. [Dailymail.co.uk]
5. “Women’s Boxing Included on 2012 Olympics List.” CNN.com. August 13, 2009, n.p. [CNN.com]
6. Michael Rivest. “Disturbing News from the Women’s World Championships: Warriors, but Still in Skirts.” Albany Times Union, September 18, 2010, n.p. [Timesunion.com]
7. Michael Rivest. “A Conversation with Dr. C. K. Wu—More on Warriors in Skirts.” Albany Times Union, September 23, 2010, n.p. [Timesunion.com]
8. David Smith. “‘No Need to Sexualize Boxing,’ says Katie Taylor.” Evening Standard (London), January 18, 2012, n.p. [Standard.co.uk]
9. Tom Degun. “AIBA Confirm Decision to Allow Women Boxers Shorts or Skirt Choice.” Inside the Games. [Insidethegames.biz]
10. Chris Mannix. “Underwood Drops Historic Match for Future of Olympic Women’s Boxing.” Sports Illustrated, August 5, 2013, n.p. [Sportsillustrated.cnn.com]
11. Ignacio Torres. “Marlen Esparza Gets Bronze and Makes Olympic History.” NBCLatino.com. August 8, 201, n.p.[NBClatino.com]
12. Kevin Mitchell. “Nicola Adams Beats India’s Mary Kom to Reach Olympic Flyweight Final.” The Guardian, August 8, 2013, n.p. [Theguardian.com]
13. Jonathan Liew. “Nicola Adams Becomes First Ever Winner of an Olympic Women’s Boxing Tournament.” Telegraph, August 9, 2012, n.p. [Telegraph.co.uk]
14. Ben Dirs. “Nicola Adams Wins Historic Boxing Gold for Great Britain.” BBC. August 9, 2013. [BBC.co.uk]
Conclusion
The State of Things—1722 to 2012 and Beyond
In women’s boxing things have changed massively. . . . But there is still a lot of work to be done.
—Nicola Adams, Olympic gold medalist[1]
From the first forays in the ring in the 1720s to the triumphs of the 2012 London Games, women have continuously labored at the sport in one manner or another.
In the recent past, the sport underwent tremendous growth in the years that coincided with Christy Martin’s career as a professional boxer (roughly 1989 to 2012). That is not to say that many of the problems facing women in this period disappeared. Quite to the contrary, issues of poor promotional opportunities, minimal media exposure, and low pay were (and are) pervasive in the sport, as are continued mismatches, a plethora of competing boxing organizations, and the same “big promotion” controls over the sport that existed before the 1990s.
Still, with the success of the thirty-six female boxers who competed in the 2012 London Olympic Games (includi
ng three Americans), there is a hopeful sense that the sport will continue to grow, having garnered more than a modicum of respect for the level of prowess exhibited in the ring.
The tremendous excitement generated by the Olympics has resulted in thousands of girls and women hitting the gyms to learn to box all over the world. That was reflected in the 30 percent jump in participation in the 2013 Women’s Junior/Youth World Boxing Championships. In Great Britain and Ireland, gold medal winners Nicola Adams and Katie Taylor have obtained rock-star status. Adams was awarded an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire), an honor previously bestowed upon only one other female boxer—Jane Couch. Taylor also finally won the highly coveted RTÉ Sports Person of the Year Award in 2012, the first woman to do so. India, too, has seen a huge rise in interest among girls after Mary Kom returned home with a bronze medal, where she is now the subject of a Bollywood biopic.
In the United States, boxer Marlen Esparza has continued to enjoy promotional opportunities with the Coca-Cola Company and Cover Girl; however, Queen Underwood and Claressa Shields have been less successful despite multiple appearances on national television talk shows and continued press coverage. And as distinct from Adams, Taylor, and Kom, the American medalists have not achieved national stature as role models for young women—although Esparza has become a particularly potent symbol for the Latin American community.
In Shields’s case, her gold medal notwithstanding, she faced the disappointment of being knocked down to youth-level competition (ages seventeen and eighteen) because of changes in the age limits for elite women (ages nineteen to forty). (When Shields competed in the Olympics the minimum age for elite women was seventeen.) She became eligible for status as an elite woman boxer only in 2014, but she will have lost well over a year of competitive fighting on the road to Rio in 2016. She has otherwise turned down offers to turn pro and has begun her freshman year in college. Shields did, however, win the American Boxing Confederation 2012 Woman Athlete of the Year and also received AIBA’s 2013 Female Youth Boxer of the Year award.
A History of Women's Boxing Page 44