Claressa Shields is an American boxer. In August 2012 she became the first American woman to win a boxing gold medal at the London Olympic games. She won the Olympic middleweight title by defeating Russian boxer Nadezda Torlopova 19?12 in London. In May 2012, she qualified to compete at the 2012 Olympics, in the first year that women's boxing was an Olympic event. Shields was the youngest boxer at the February 2012 U.S. Olympic trials, where she won the 165-pound weight class. Shields was born and raised in Flint, Michigan, where she is a high school junior as of May 2012. She was introduced to boxing by her father, Bo Shields, who had boxed in underground leagues. Bo was in prison beginning when Shields was two years old, and released when she was nine. After his release, he talked to her about boxer Laila Ali, piquing her interest in the sport, although Bo nevertheless believed that boxing was a men's sport and refused to allow Shields to pursue it until she was eleven. At that time, she began boxing at Berston Field House in Flint, where she met her coach and trainer, Jason Crutchfield. 

March 17th, 1995 in Flint (Age 29)