Women's History Wednesday Profile: Claressa Shields
Claressa Shields, the Flint, MI phenom seeks to make history in Rio. (Photo: Mitchell Haaseth/NBC Sports)
Claressa Shields competed in the first ever Olympic boxing competition for women. At 17 years old, she won the first ever gold medal in middleweight class.
Shields began boxing as a way to follow in her father’s foot steps. “My dad was talking one day, and he was real sad. He say he wanted one of his sons to take after him,” Claressa told The New Yorker in 2012. At that time, Claressa’s father didn’t quite provide the motivating response his daughter might have wanted, “He said, ‘H, no! Boxing is a man’s sport.’ I just started crying. I didn’t talk to him for two days. After he told me no, that kind of motivated me, really, just to prove him wrong.”
While it might not have been what Claressa wanted to hear, perhaps it was what she needed to hear. The 11 year old found a gym in Flint where she could work out, the FWC Berston Field House Boxing Club. Eventually, her father Clarence came around and properly enrolled her at Berston’s. That is where Claressa met her coach, Jason Crutchfield.
Shields and Crutchfield training together in Flint. (Photo: t-rexthefilm.com)
Crutchfield was a boxer in his younger years. The former 1983 City Champion remained close to the sport after his career ended, volunteering as a coach after his daytime job. In the documentary, “T-Rex” Crutchfield mentioned that he always felt he would get the chance to train a champion, he just never imagined it would “be a girl.” And how could he? Women's boxing was first approved in 2009, to be introduced at the London Games. Until 2012, boxing was the last Olympic sport that was all-male.
Claressa had to overcome a lot in her personal and boxing career to medal in London. Winning a gold medal, so she thought, would provide endorsements and other opportunities to remove her and her family from the hardships Flint had dealt to them. However, that was not the case. In “T-Rex”, both Shields and her coach question why other 2012 Olympians, such as gymnasts and swimmers, were receiving endorsements and she was not. In the documentary, Shields discusses her image with USA Boxing. The young Olympian was asked to tone down her attitude towards her competition (that being that she loves beating people up and making them cry).
Shields fought her way onto the scene in the 2012 London Olympics. (Photo: Bob Donnan/USA TODAY Sports)
However, like other things in Claressa’s life, she learned to overcome the disappointment of what was absent, and focus on becoming the best she could be. After returning from London, Shields became the first person in her family to graduate from high school. She also continued to focus on her boxing career, “My whole goal with boxing is, to go down in history as the best women’s fighter in the world. Matter fact, you don’t even gotta say the best women’s fighter, the best fighter in the world, period.”
Shields won the 2013 Youth World Title, two World Championships in 2014 and 2015, and a gold medal at the 2015 Pan American games, becoming the first American woman to win gold at that competition. At the Pan Am games last year, she was also selected as the flag bearer for the closing ceremonies. To date, her only loss came to world champion Savannah Marshall (Britain) leading up to the 2012 London Games.
Whether it was maturity, the proper representation, or just time, Shields was able to find endorsements and recognition. “T-Rex” went on to become an award-winning film that was aired on PBS, and now available to view on Venmo and Netflix. Shields was also featured in the Powerade “Just a Kid” campaign, and the 2016 ESPN Body Issue. Since, Claressa has also received a larger Team USA Stipend ($3,000 a month), has moved to Colorado Springs and began working with a new coach, as reported by The Wall Street Journal.
Claressa was featured in the E:60 series, where she opened up about her past, her relationship with her first coach Jason Crutchfield, and the Flint water crisis.
Shields hopes to be a positive storyline coming from Flint, although, she told ESPN that violence, not the water crisis, is the more pressing issue coming from her community, “The gun violence is way more important that the water crisis,” remarks Shields without hesitation. “I know at least fifteen guys, who are my friends, that have been murdered. When are we gonna take care of these murders, and the violence and the poverty? That is what I wanna know.”
E:60 Claressa Shields
This summer, Shields travels to a country whose poor are asking the same types of questions, hoping that this time around, she can move her siblings and her mother out of Flint by winning big … again. Claressa has qualified for the 2016 Rio Games and looks to defend her gold medal. Now 21, should Shields is a veteran for Team USA boxing. She is the only competitor with any Olympic experience and is the heavy favorite to win. Should Claressa win gold in Brazil, she would become the first American boxer to win back-to-back gold medals in the Olympics.
Claressa won her opening bout in the Rio Quarterfinals today. She will compete in the semifinals on Friday at 2:30pm eastern standard time.
