News & Neuigkeiten » Thats why we made this choice to play NA and I

This is an online exclusive story from ESPN The Magazines Body Issue 2016. Subscribe today!?And for more from the 2016 Body Issue, check out espn.com/bodyissue,?and pick up a copy on newsstands starting July 8.When Claressa Shields competed at the 2012 London Games, she became the first American female boxer to win a gold medal. Now, with Rio on the horizon, its clear Shields is hungry for more. In a rare break from training, the middleweight fighter sat down with Body Issue reporter Morty Ain to discuss the water crisis in her hometown of Flint, Michigan, and what shes doing to ensure that she nabs another Olympic gold.I got the nickname T-Rex when I was 11 years old. Back when I was younger, I was very skinny and I had short arms, but I used to always be swinging.Im humble and Im confident. I think those words kind of contradict themselves because people always confuse confident with the word cocky. Confident is believing in yourself. Being humble is, even though you believe in yourself and you know what youre capable of, you still work 10 times harder than your opponent to make sure you get the output you want. I train very hard to be able to say that Im going to be a two-time Olympic gold medalist.Boxing gave me self-confidence that I didnt have growing up. When I was young, I was super quiet and I didnt trust anybody. I didnt like having friends. I started boxing when I was 11, but I dont think I started talking much until I was 13. I started coming out of my shell, and I started transforming and I liked the way that I looked and the way that I boxed. Even though I was pretty boyish when I was younger, as each year came on I got more and more feminine. Boxing opened me up and helped me find the person that I am.I was angry for a lot of reasons when I was a child. I was molested and raped. But I channeled all the anger from that into boxing, and I think thats why Im so successful at it. Boxing really helped with that. It calmed me down a lot and gave me discipline and structure.Living in Flint, poverty is an obstacle that you have to fight through. I always had to fend for my brother and sister -- I was always the one to sacrifice my meals so that they could eat. Without that struggle, I dont think I would be as strong as I am.Im fighting for more than just a medal. Im fighting for my family, Im fighting for my future, Im fighting for my city -- to give them some hope and faith, because its so bad in Flint. I always fight harder than I would if I were fighting for just a medal.How people deal with death in Flint is they act like it doesnt exist. Its like an everyday thing there now, and thats not good. I dont ever want to be stuck in a situation where I have to live like that or my family has to live like that. Thats why I sacrifice. Once I win another Olympic gold medal, Im moving my family out of Flint. I have a little brother who is 18, and he can be a victim of gun violence. I have a sister who can maybe get shot. I have a nephew who I dont want to grow up there because he may be shot or killed just because of the gang violence. I dont want that for my family. I dont want that for anybodys family.As the training intensifies, I transform. A week before I fight, I always tell my family and my friends that I cant be around any kids -- Im easily annoyed and I dont like to lose my focus; Im just super freakin in a zone. Then once I walk into the ring, the only thing Im thinking is, Ive trained for almost six weeks, Im pissed. Ive done too much training to lose. Thats where my mind is at: Ive trained too hard, Ive eaten right, I went to bed early, I havent been able to hang out with my friends or my family. Somebody is going to have to pay for that [laughs]. Somebody.Ever since I was 11, my whole life has been about boxing. Everything I do has been about boxing. I played basketball so I could be in shape for boxing. I ran track for boxing. I went to a movie theater to see my first movie when I was 14. I didnt even go to a club until I was 19, not until after I won a gold medal at the Olympics.I decided that after I qualified for this years Olympics I was going to take five days in Florida for myself. Thats the only vacation Ive had in my entire life. Literally.Im like Serena Williams little twin. First of all, we look alike, how our bodies are built. She has a slim waist, big butt, come on -- shes from Michigan!Im training seven to eight hours a day. Im always doing extra. I always stay after [training]. I always hit the bag after, do pushups and crunches after, or I might even go for another run. For some others, itll probably be five or six hours or maybe even four, but for me its seven or eight.One thing I hate is people seeing me tired. Body language is everything. Show this person who is dead tired that you can go another round.Im in the biggest weight class in the Olympics for the women -- Im the 165 pounder. Im the shorter fighter, so I have to make sure my legs are in shape. The advantage for me against the taller girls is that Im very slick, Im very fast and I punch harder than them. Also, my footwork and foot speed allow me to get to them on the inside when theyre moving and running.Im always underweight. I think the biggest I ever got in my career was 171. Right now Im 163 pounds, and I fight at 165. Im always under. Ive never really had to cut weight.I do eat a lot. But you know, man, some days my body is working so hard that Im not even hungry; I just want to go to sleep and rest. You need rest more than food. But once I get up, I do eat a lot.Floyd Mayweather is my favorite fighter of this era. You dont see Floyd respond to everybody; he sticks to his game plan. Everyone wants him to get into the ring and brawl, but hes smart -- he hits people and he dont get hit. Then when he gets out of the ring after 36 minutes of rounds, he still looks fresh -- I love it.For a long time, I thought my nose was pretty big. Id get hit in my nose and Id think, This nose is huge! But now I think Im very beautiful, even though my lips are big too, but whatever, I dont care. My dad and my sister have a big nose too. Im fine with it.Yeah, of course I think Im a little crazy. I think Im a little crazy because some people are terrified to get into the ring and box, but Im always excited [laughs]. Im always like, Lets go! Im ready to fight! Im excited to fight anybody and everybody. When you get into the ring to fight somebody, this is not normal stuff. Its not normal. Its like every day I walk around in my life and Im always ready for a fight. If somebody is like, Hey, I think I can beat you, Im like, Throw on the gloves! Thats a little craziness that I have in me. But otherwise I think Im pretty cool.Some girls will be so scared that they wont even look into my face; theyll look at the ground. You can just sense energy. Some girls will just be super, super nervous. Some girls will be tough. If they are mugging me, I just start laughing, Man, Im about to mess this girl up.I fight everyone like they are the world champion. I always feel like Im the underdog, and thats what makes me fight harder.The first time getting into the ring was when I was 11 and I sparred against a guy. I just remember he hit me in my nose and my eyes got watery. Youre like, What the heck was that? Thats insane. I wasnt used to getting hit in my face. To me, its just not normal.Oh, I won that. That was my first sparring match. I had been boxing for six months and I beat him up. My first time ever getting into the ring, I won. I didnt know how good I was.I think at the age of 15, I knew that I was capable of winning an Olympic gold medal. I knew I had it in the bag then; it was just a matter of time.Some reporters told me that I broke the limits of womens boxing. Nobody goes in there and is super aggressive ... nobody goes in there and tries to kill their opponent -- its always pretty boxing going on, somebody who just wants to win the match. But I go in there to seek and destroy and to win. I feel like I broke barriers doing that, and I made a new definition of womens boxing. I feel like I use beautiful combinations and I remind them of old fighters. I feel like Im a young Sugar Ray Robinson sometimes. I think Im a mixture of him and Joe Louis when I fight.When Im getting ready to go to the ring, you can just look at me and tell that Ive been through a lot. You can just see the pain in my eyes, and you can see that Im about to release it once I get inside the ring. When I have my friends record me walking to the ring, Im looking like, Who the heck is that girl? I look totally different. I even feel like Im taller and stronger and bigger, like Im 6-1, 180 pounds.I want to be a boxing icon, not just for women but for boxing period. To be honest, I want to go down in history as the best womens fighter who ever lived. Right now when you look up who the best womens fighter is you get Laila Ali, Ann Wolfe, Lucia Rijker, Christy Martin. And I feel like Im a different breed. They are all great fighters, but Im different, especially skill-wise. I think boxing has changed and Ive changed with boxing. When you look at film of them and then you look at film of me, I want you to be able to say, Yeah, Claressa was the better fighter. She was the best fighter ever.Fighting is something God wants me to do. Im built the way that I am -- with my shape and my figure, with my muscles - because God blessed me with that, and Im grateful for it. He wants me to be a boxer and to be a fighter. Blackhawks Jerseys 2020 . 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Peter Holland and Brad Staubitz were sent to Toronto on Saturday as the Maple Leafs traded defenceman Jesse Blacker and draft picks to the Anaheim Ducks. The qualifiers for the Boston Major generated some controversy last week, when several European region teams competed and won the Americas open qualifier rounds.Several squads that are based out of European regions, including Prodota Gaming, Elements Pro Gaming, Kaipi, Power Rangers and Team Empire competed in the Americas open qualifier. The two teams that qualified from the Americas, Prodota and Elements, are both considered European squads, hailing from Russia and the CIS region.Despite the qualifiers being designated to four regions (Americas, Europe, China and Southeast Asia), no rule exists on the FACEIT admin page to prevent teams from competing in qualifiers outside their region, or competing in multiple open qualifiers for separate regions.When reached for comment, Prodota Gaming CEO Maxym Dyakonyuk pointed to the issue of stacked qualifiers. The Americas get two spots in regionals for open qualifiers, and two invites to Boston for first and second place in regionals, but have fewer teams to challenge than the European region, which has 10 regional participants to Americas eight.As you can see in EU for the last two years, we had very stacked open qualifier with over 20+ relatively strong teams and over 800 participating teams for each open qualifier, said Dyakonyuk. Thats why we made this choice to play NA and I think it waas worth it; however, we played bad in [regional] qualifier, but at least we tried.dddddddddddd I think current qualifier system needs to be changed or adjusted somehow to team quantity, and we also make this point by doing this.Though Prodota failed to seize a playoff spot within the regional and wont be attending Boston, it still allowed the team to get into a regional qualifier. Dyakonyuk says that Prodota wont be trying the same strategy again for the next major, however.Some tier 3-4 teams might do it in the future, Dyakonyuk told ESPN. But teams like [Prodota] and better wont do it anymore because, as you can see, both EU teams didnt reach playoffs anyway, so it makes no difference in the end.The issue becomes even more severe, though, when teams use other regions as a second, or even third, chance to make it into the regional playoffs. Several squads, like Kaipi and Team Empire, joined the Americas open qualifiers after failing to qualify in the European region.Many pro players and personalities took to Twitter to voice their concern over teams jumping between qualifiers to get through to regionals.ESPN.com reached out to Valve for comment, but did not receive a response by the time of publication. ' ' '