No, I’m not talking about hot women in the the Olympics. Well, they could be. Regardless, these women are knock outs in the true sense. This year’s games marks a first and a last: the first time women will compete in boxing and the last time women will be closed out of any part of the Olympics.
Women’s boxing is an Olympic sport for the first time, with thirty-six fighters in three weight classes competing. Although the sport as a whole has slipped into more of a backseat position in the game, this news, and other changes to the scoring system of the competition, are expected to take the sport to the front lines of the games again. And hopefully into your living rooms when you tune in to support these badass women.
The United States team includes 12 members, one of which, Claressa Shields (pictured above) is only seventeen years old. How’s that for a kick (or punch) in the head?
Another woman who packs punch is Kate Sekules, author of “The Boxer’s Heart,” a memoir being re-released with a new afterword that chronicles how the 35-year-old ended up at Philadelphia’s Blue Horizon arena in February 1997 to bloody an opponent, nicknamed Raging Belle, in a bout billed as “the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.” Look out for a review of the kick-ass book in the upcoming issue of Bust.
(Image courtesy of Corbis)
