Flint, Michigan’s Claressa Shields continues her dominance as the best amateur female boxer at 75kg. She became the first US boxer male or female to repeat as a gold medalist as she defeated Netherlands’s Nouchka Fontijn Sunday in an unanimous decision in the 75kg finals at the 2016 Olympic Games. At age 21, we won’t be surprised if she tries for the trifecta in 2020 in Tokyo. Continue reading Olympic Boxing Recap: Shields and Adams Repeat; Mossely Takes Gold→
365 women from across the planet are heading to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to represent their countries in hand to hand combat sports in the Games of the XXXI Olympiad. Among the returning athletes are 13 gold medalists looking to repeat their success.
Team USA is stacked with talent with Boxing Gold Medalist Claressa Shields (see above) and Judo Gold Medlaist Kayla Harrison leading the way.
Wrestling will also introduce two more weight categories this year.
All Team USA female combat sports except Taekwondo will be broadcast on NBCSN (usually on tape delays and only featured matches). All sports will stream live on the NBC Sports app and NBCOlympics.com.
The four major hand to hand combat sports sees some familiar and new faces to the Olympic teams.
Judo was the last to see their team Monday as we awaited the May rankings to be announced. Two medalists from London will return to the grand stage as gold medalist Kayla Harrison (78 kg) and bronze medalist Marti Malloy (57 kg) earned their tickets to Rio. Joining them will be Olympic newcomer Angelica Delgado (52 kg).
Two female wrestlers have punched their ticket to Rio.
Adeline Gray (75kg) and Elena Pirozhkova (63kg) rolled their way through the US Olympic Trials this past weekend in Iowa City, Iowa.
Pirozhkova won her 16 woman tournament, sweeping their two out of three match finals. She won gold at the 2012 World Championships before heading to the Olympics that year. The Russian born wrestler defected with her parents at age 3, and is one of the top ranked wrestlers on the planet. Her pinning of Erin Clodgo was ironic in the fact Clodgo earned the quota spot winning the Pan-Am Games 63kg championship.