Michigan boxer Claressa Shields qualifies for the Summer Olympics in dramatic fashion

Flint, Michigan’s Claressa Shields qualified to participate in London’s Summer Olympics even in the face of defeat. The 17-year old middleweight buried her head in the stands of the venue after watching a series of events play out in her favor.

Shields lost her first bout at Women’s World Championship in Qinhunagdao, China to England’s Savannah Marshall in the second round of the competition earlier in this week.

At that point, her only entry into games was on the fists of other fighters. In the end when Marshall won her semifinal matchup in the tourney, she secured a spot for Shields.

2012 will be the first year that the Summer Olympics will showcase women’s boxing. It was extremely important to Shields that she find her way into history as she told USA Boxing.

“The first thing I thought was thank you God, I’m so, so happy. You are there, you are hearing me. They’ve just invited the Olympic gold medalist to the Olympics. I’m thanking God right now, I’m so happy. I prayed, I prayed for (Marshall) for an hour last night, I prayed for (Marshall) today, and I prayed for (Marshall) while she was in the ring. I’m thankful.”

Shields while thankful, also said that she has learned valuable lessons from the loss that almost stole her dreams from her.

“I learned that it’s not all about fighting sometimes, I need to learn how to be satisfied with a win. It doesn’t matter how high you score or if you score low, don’t worry about it. I let the score freak me out. I should have stayed thinking, stayed boxing. I learned a lot. I am going to work on a lot of stuff when I get back to training camp, and get back to the gym.”