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Going for the gold: Flint's Claressa Shields heads to final match

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The New York Times

Flint’s Olympic female boxer Claressa Shields will fight for a gold medal.  The boxer's family and friends gathered to watch their hometown athlete in her semifinal match this morning.  

It was an all-out brawl of a fight, fast and breathless and dominated by Shields. She took down Kazakhstan’s Marina Volnova 29 to 15.

Cheers erupted from the crowd of supporters packed into a bar in downtown Flint. Marcella Adams is Shields’ mother. She says she may just pass out if her daughter wins the gold.“I might just faint! I almost fainted right here!”

Clarence Shields is Claressa’s dad and a former amateur boxer. He says he’s confident she’s coming home a champ. “I blew the opportunity to go to the Olympics when I was a kid. And now that my baby is in the Olympics, and gonna be the Olympic champion...aww, wow. Hey, it’s awesome!”

Shields’ final match takes place Thursday afternoon. She’ll fight Russia’s Nadezhda Torlopova for the first-ever women’s gold medal in boxing. 

Kate Wells is a Peabody Award-winning journalist currently covering public health. She was a 2023 Pulitzer Prize finalist for her abortion coverage.