Shields is the youngest U.S. Olympic boxer since 16-year-old Davey Armstrong made the 1972 team that competed at the Munich Olympics.
Photo by Paul DiSalvo
Shields has avid fans among her Olympic teammates, especially Rau'shee Warren, the first three-time U.S. Olympic boxer and adjunct U.S. team leader. He's literally watched Shields grow up in the close-knit, insular world of amateur boxing.
"Claressa's work ethic, with her just being 17, is amazing," Warren said. "When I see her in the gym, she throws combinations and shots like men. I tell her if I ever got in the ring with her, I'd have to hit her for real, because she has skills that can be great and hurt you. Training is the hard part, and she's very committed to that. By the time she gets in the ring, everything will be easy for her in London. She drives herself. She has a chance to shock the world. I really believe that."
Shields fights with a controlled fury. Her target is Marshall, and it gnaws at her that though it appears on a tape of their fight that Shields outhit her, it was Marshall's connects that caught the eye of the five judges.
"I know what I'm up against," Shields admitted. "I'm going to Marshall's home country, and I'd really like to smash her. But all of those girls are on my hit list, too. Losing to Savannah Marshall, that hurt. I know I beat her. She doesn't know what's coming at her again. I gave her a hard time, and I still don't know how she got the decision.
"But believe me, the loss helped me and made me work way harder in the gym. When I get tired, I push harder. I'm going to the Olympics and if I even have a chance to run into her again, it's over. I'm telling you it's over. I'm not letting her breathe. They're all older than me, and more advanced, but I think I'm stronger than all of them. We'll see what happens. I'm going to London to win and take home a gold medal."
Shields tapes her hand before a recent training sessionin Colorado Springs, Colo.
Photo by Paul DiSalvo
Crutchfield would watch her from the corner of his eye. He introduced her to the proper way to punch, how to hit the speedbag and heavybag, yet he wasn't exactly ready to commit to the lone girl in his small gym. Crutchfield, 48, an old-school trainer who had a solid amateur career and 7-1-1 record as a pro lightweight, wasn't too keen on girls in his place.
Here was this girl. A girl boxing?
"It's why I stayed away for a little while, until a few weeks in. Call me old-school that way, but then Claressa kept coming back, and coming back," Crutchfield said. "I gave her to somebody else that first time. It took me two weeks to notice her. She had a lot of fire and desire to learn and do well. That's what caught my attention. Once I saw she was serious about it, that she was committed, that's when I committed to her."
Boxing caught Shields' attention. It was a refuge, because prior to boxing, no one really noticed her. Her father was incarcerated for a time and a sporadic presence in her life, while her mother was a transient figure in her early years. Shields' grandmother took her in when she was 6. But the little girl was always being picked on, for what clothes she wore, for her hair, for her quiet demeanor, for the way she looked.
She was called ugly.
She was bullied.
