Nothing can stop Claressa Shields

Nothing can stop Claressa Shields.

Her opponents definitely cannot stop her. She became the first American woman to win Olympic boxing gold four years ago in London, and she hasn’t lost a match since. Her all-time record is 68-1, with the only loss coming four years ago as a 17-year-old at the World Championships in China. She blames that loss on the fact that her coach/mentor/adoptive father Jason Crutchfield couldn’t afford to make the trip. Don’t worry -- he’ll be in Rio.

Her short arms couldn’t stop her. She proudly totes the nickname “T-Rex,” letting everybody know that she’s a monstrous killing machine in spite of her shorter-than-average limbs.

Being born in Flint, Mich., couldn’t stop her. Shields’ story is one of immense poverty, coming from a place so ignored that the government didn’t seem to care that it was supplying its citizens with leaden water. Her father was in prison, her mother was unemployed and she often didn’t have a place to stay until Crutchfield took her in. She sacrificed meals so her brothers and sisters could eat, and despite the lack of food, she came out stronger than anybody on the planet.

The repeated refrain that women shouldn’t box couldn’t stop her. Her father was a boxer in his youth and lamented that none of his sons had taken after him. So she spoke up:

When she was eleven, she suggested that she do it. “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.

Sexual abuse didn’t stop her. As she told ESPNW:

I was molested and raped. But I channeled all the anger from that into boxing, and I think that’s why I’m so successful at it. Boxing really helped with that. It calmed me down a lot and gave me discipline and structure.

The fact that no American woman had ever won boxing gold didn’t stop Shields. She put her everything into winning, knowing that winning gold could get her family out of Flint.

The disappointment of realizing that wasn’t true hasn’t stopped her. After winning gold, Shields became her community’s hero, but the endorsements and cash she expected didn’t arrive -- just people asking her for money she didn’t have. A documentary about her rise to stardom shows her using part her $25,000 gold medal stipend to pay her mom’s overdue water bill.

But she believes that another gold can change everything. With another victory, she’ll be the first American boxer, male or female, to win back-to-back boxing golds. If Shields once again destroys everything in her path, we should all take notice. She should be a household name with her face on billboards across the nation.

Shields’ willpower and fighting power are so gargantuan that she’s overcome every obstacle in her path -- and there have been plenty. None of these things have stopped Claressa Shields, and maybe nothing can. The women’s middleweight gold medal bout is on Aug. 21, and if her past is any indicator, Shields could very well wind up on the medal stand.