Claressa Shields felt as if she had hit a million-dollar jackpot when she won gold in the Olympic debut of women’s boxing at the 2012 London Games. But the 17-year-old returned to her hometown of Flint, Michigan, to find her future held no more promise than before.
“I had so many expectations,” Shields, now 24, recalls. “I thought I would be on magazine covers, TV shows. I thought I would have a lot of endorsement deals and sponsorships. And it didn’t happen – not because of the person I was, but because women’s boxing just wasn’t something that people found attractive.”
So, after graduating high school, Shields doubled down and bet on the only person who had never failed her: herself. With a second Olympic gold, she decided, her greatness couldn’t be ignored. At the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, she gained just that, becoming the first American boxer, man or woman, to win two Olympic gold medals.