Team USA announces six boxers heading to 2020 Olympics in Toyko

Might 14th, 2021

The Boxing Process Drive (BTF) introduced as we speak the 49 quota locations, initially to be awarded on the Highway to Tokyo Americas Qualifier, that have been awarded to boxers to compete within the Olympic Video games Tokyo 2020 this summer time. The quota locations included six Crew USA boxers, which was based mostly off the BTF Rankings.

“These six boxers have been staples inside our program and have established themselves amongst the world’s finest by their performances in the course of the previous quad,” acknowledged USA Boxing Excessive Efficiency Director Matt Johnson. “Now it’s time for them to carry out on the world’s greatest stage in Tokyo.”

Representing Crew USA on the Olympic Video games Tokyo 2020, pending United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee approval, will likely be Rashida Ellis (Lynn, Mass.) Virginia Fuchs (Houston, Texas), Naomi Graham (Fayetteville, N.C.), Delante Johnson (Cleveland, Ohio), Oshae Jones (Toledo, Ohio) and Richard Torrez Jr. (Tulare, Calif.). All six boxers will likely be competing of their first Olympic Video games.

2019 Elite Ladies’s World Championships bronze medalist Ellis will compete within the ladies’s light-weight (132 lbs./60 kg) division. Ellis received bronze on the 2019 Pan American Video games so as to add to her BTF rankings to solidify her place in Tokyo because the second highest ranked America’s boxer and twelfth total in her weight class. Ellis will likely be trying to win Crew USA’s first ladies’s light-weight Olympic medal.

“Qualifying for the Olympics has been one in every of my deepest goals,” talked about Ellis. “I by no means doubt my capability. I’ve stopped being afraid of what might go incorrect and begin being enthusiastic about what might go proper. So, I embrace my errors and study from them, as my errors have helped me enhance and attain the Olympics. I don’t do straightforward; I make issues occur. The arduous work and dedication with effort and dedication, I can succeed.”

Fuchs will symbolize Crew USA within the flyweight division (112 lbs./51 kg). The 33-year-old will likely be trying to earn USA Boxing its second medal within the ladies’s flyweight division because the introduction of the occasion in London 2012. Fuchs brings a powerful resume to the ring, together with a bronze medal on the 2018 Elite Ladies’s World Championships and silver medal from the 2019 Pan American Video games, which locations her because the second highest America’s flyweight boxer and sixteenth total within the BTF rankings.

“I’ve been ready for this second for a really very long time. I’m so excited I can lastly name myself an Olympian,” acknowledged Fuchs. “With all this world has been by and having to postpone the Olympics a complete yr, I’m proud to say I’m one of many members in what will likely be often known as probably the most acknowledged Olympics in historical past. I’m able to symbolize my nation in probably the most revered method and produce house the gold!”

2019 Pan American Video games Graham is the best seeded America’s feminine middleweight (165 lbs./75 kg) boxer within the BTF rankings, the place she at the moment sits eighth total. Graham earned factors from her Pan American Video games title, in addition to her third-place end on the 2018 Elite Ladies’s World Championships and prime 5 end on the 2019 version. Graham, who will change into USA Boxing’s first energetic feminine army member to compete in an Olympic Video games, will likely be in rivalry to seize Crew USA’s third straight Olympic gold medal within the ladies’s middleweight division.

“It feels unreal that I’m going to the Olympics,” Graham acknowledged when speaking about incomes her place to Tokyo. “I proceed to shock myself by discovering my very own limits, after which having the braveness to blow previous them.”

Jones will step into the ring in one of many two newly added ladies’s weight courses, the welterweight (152 lbs./69 kg) division. Jones, who made historical past in 2019 along with her gold medal efficiency on the Pan American Video games, will look to proceed making historical past by turning into the primary Olympic gold medalists in her weight division. The 23-year-old added beneficial factors to her rankings along with her prime 5 placement on the 2019 Elite Ladies’s World Championships to complete as the highest America’s boxer and seventh within the total BTF rankings for the welterweight division to punch her ticket to the Olympics.

“I could solely take up one spot, however my one spot represents a lot,” shared Jones. “I’m past grateful for the prospect to symbolize ladies, African People, my small metropolis of Toledo, however most significantly, my nation.”

The second Ohioan to symbolize Crew USA, Johnson, extends the streak of Cleveland-native boxing Olympians to 4, following within the footsteps of Charles Conwell (2016), Terrell Gausha (2012) and Raynell Williams (2008). The welterweight (152 lbs./69 kg), who first caught the eye of the boxing world along with his gold medal efficiency on the 2016 Youth World Championships, earned his rating factors by his bronze medal end on the 2019 Pan American Video games and prime 16 placement on the 2019 Elite World Championships. Johnson was the third highest seeded America’s boxer and nineteenth total.

“My struggles are my stripes, and I put on them on my again, in order that the folks round me can see that even if you’re residing in a jungle, you may nonetheless chase your goals,” acknowledged Johnson. “I’m not solely doing this for my metropolis, however for my two coaches, Dante Benjamin Sr. and Clint Martin, whom I misplaced throughout my journey to those Video games.”

Torrez, the best ranked tremendous heavyweight (201+ lbs./91+ kg) boxer from the Americas and eleventh total, earned his place by his third-place efficiency on the 2019 Pan American Video games and prime 5 standing at that yr’s Elite Males’s World Championships. Torrez, a former Youth World Championships bronze medalist, would be the first American boxer to compete on this weight class since 2012.

“Everyone seems to be joyful they’re going to the Olympics, it’s everybody’s dream, however I have to be there,” stated Torrez. “The fireplace that was instilled in me earlier than I might even stroll, that drives me to be the very best, the hearth that has been in my household for generations, has overflowed. It has set ablaze all my second choices, and it has made ashes of some other chance apart from that of success.”

Crew USA will likely be guided by USA Boxing Nationwide Head Coach Billy Walsh throughout these Olympic Video games.

“It’s implausible information for our six boxers who’ve labored endlessly for the previous 5 years to change into an Olympian,” Walsh shared. “We now deal with the subsequent stage of the method, to change into an Olympic Champion.”

The boxing competitors will start on Saturday, July twenty fourth (JST). Proceed to verify usaboxing.org and USA Boxing’s social media platforms to remain up to date on extra data concerning the Olympic Video games Tokyo 2020.

All crew nominations are topic to USOPC approval.