claressa shields-boxing-flint-t rex-olympics-medals

June 11, 2020 By: Natasha Vukonich

10 of the most influential and badass women in sports: 9. Claressa Shields

The greatest responsibility of any athlete, celebrity and public figures is to use their platform for the betterment of society. What makes these 10 women badass is not simply their triumphs in sports, it is their strength to fight against injustice, risk backlash and even their careers in order to insight every type of social and environmental change that we need.

Our next woman found a better life through sports and has since done everything in her power to aid her community and youth athletes around the country.

Claressa Shields

Flint, Michigan knows Claressa Shields as one of their greatest hometown heroes, and the world knows her as the hard hitting ‘T-Rex” taking boxing by storm since her 2012 Olympic Games debut.

In 2012, Women’s Boxing joined the Olympic Games circuit and Shields became the first woman to win gold in boxing. T-Rex returned to the Olympics in 2016 and became the first American boxer, male or female, to bring home consecutive Olympic gold medals.

Shields conquest of three weight classes and multiple world championships gives her the record for becoming a two and three-weight world champion in the fewest professional fights. Having held the unified WBC and IFB female super middleweight titles from 2017-2018, reigning as the undisputed female middleweight champion of the world since 2019, and holding the current 2020 unified WBC and WBCO light middleweight title.

Her diverse mix of titles makes her only one of seven boxers, male or female, to hold all four major titles simultaneously.

Shields has been named Female Fighter of the Year (2018) by the Boxing Writers Association of America, a 2018 inductee to the USA Boxing Alumni Association’s Hall of Fame, and the 2019 Women’s Sports Foundation ‘Sportswoman of the year’. Boxing fans will remember her this way, by her triumphs in the ring and the titles she held.

But the people of Flint Michigan will forever remember Claressa Shields by the bronze bust sculpted in her honor. The bust sits among six other sculptures of influential Flint women, memorialized by the project “Honoring Heroines and Humanitarians – Women Who Have Contributed to a Better Life for All in This Community.”

Having grown up poor and sexually abused, Shield’s adopted boxing as an outlet for her frustration, and ultimately a platform to support her community and children in similar situations.

Not only has Shields consistently fought to raise awareness and funds to remedy the water crisis in Flint, she also created the “Claressa Shields Community Project”. The project’s purpose is to offer resources, services, and a safe place for Flint children to go.

Shields is also a nationwide advocate for the wellbeing of children through sports, as an ambassador for UP2US Sports, a leadership program that trains and supports coaches in becoming effective mentors and community leaders.

As if her achievements and accolades in the sweet sport were not remarkable enough, Claressa Shields takes that same fortitude, courage, and intensity into life’s other battles. She is truly a champion.

Next up is our 10^th and final badass woman. Despite being overlooked and underestimated in every single step of her career, she’s risen to the top and proven that women can do anything men can do, but better — and in high heels.