COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado – Jajaira Gonzalez was scrolling through social media at her job at a kickboxing gym in Virginia about three years ago when she saw some of her former US boxing teammates traveling the world, competing for medals and generally living their lives. better lives.
The Instagram post hit Gonzalez like a hard punch, jolting her out of a quarter-life sleep.
“They were in the water in Spain and I suddenly thought, ‘I should be there,’” she said. “What am I doing here? Like, I’m fat. I didn’t work out. I haven’t been to the gym for a long time. I was like, ‘I need to change my life. I need to get back to my life. I wasn’t born just to do this normal job. I should travel the world doing what I love.”
Gonzalez is gone the most promising amateur boxer in the USA – a teenage prodigy with power, infinite stamina and extensive skill from years of sparring with her older brothers while training with her demanding father, José. Three of her brothers – Joet, Jousce and Jonjairo – have fought professionally.
But Jajaira fell well short of a trip to the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, losing a close decision in her final fight for a spot on the U.S. team in late 2015.
The fire inside Gonzalez dimmed to an ember over the next half-decade as she navigated depression, a high-profile relationship, a reckless stint in the Army, and a malaise associated with anxiety familiar to many whose teenage dreams they simply never came true.
“Boxing was everything to me back then,” Gonzalez said. “After that, I didn’t really care about it anymore. It definitely changed my focus.”
As of 2021, Gonzalez has been out of boxing for around four years. She became estranged from some of her family in Southern California and became stranded on the wrong side of the continent during the COVID-19 pandemic.
With one look at his former teammates living on social media, the spark came back to life.
She returned west and returned to the academy. She reconciled with most of her family and dedicated her life to boxing.
Several years after giving up on his dream and less than two years after starting over, Gonzalez qualified for the Paris Olympics.
“It’s like Lazarus came back from the dead,” said USA Boxing coach Billy Walsh, laughing. “I think she is grateful that this opportunity has arisen again. She is mature enough to understand that two Olympics have passed her by and now she has the opportunity. This is perhaps the only chance she has to really deliver and win a medal.”
Now 27, Gonzalez has developed into a clear contender with a strong medal chance despite being in a tight weight class – especially if she attracts opponents who may become worn down and frustrated by her superior athleticism.
“She has one of the best engines in the world, so we need to marry that with her punches and loosen up her hands,” Walsh said. “She needs to go to work early because no one can keep up with the pace she sets. I think it will be a good tactic for her. There won’t be many girls who can keep up with her at 60 kilos.”
Gonzalez heads to Paris knowing that her tortuous journey back to boxing has prepared her for just about anything.
She was mentally adrift as the Rio Olympics came and went without her, so she enlisted in the Army with the plan to box in the much-vaunted military program. The hard-working mentality instilled by her father allowed her to deal with the challenges of being a soldier, but she became disenchanted with enlistment because she felt the Army boxing coaches didn’t push her enough.
After she left the Army, Gonzalez lost focus. She didn’t train properly for the 2018 national championships and lost her spot on the U.S. team in a surprising loss.
Gonzalez was also dating Shakur Stevenson, the silver medal-winning bantamweight from Rio who had a solid professional career. In one of the most uncomfortable fights in boxing history, Joet Gonzalez lost a decision to his sister’s boyfriend for the WBO featherweight title in 2019, at the height of Gonzalez’s estrangement from his family.
The relationship gradually ended, but Gonzalez was still living on Stevenson’s native East Coast when she saw the Instagram post that motivated her to change her life.
She went to therapy to improve her mental approach. Her father retrained her and her mother prepared low-calorie meals.
Gonzalez lost her extra weight – and then lost more to drop to 125 pounds (57 kg) in a bid to stay out of her original 60-kilogram division, which was dominated by Tokyo Olympian and world champion Rashida Ellis. But she had competition at 57 kilos from promising Alyssa Mendoza, a precocious teenager from a Mexican-American family, just like Gonzalez eight years earlier.
Gonzalez and Mendoza went to a tournament in Bulgaria in February 2023 with the understanding that whoever went the furthest would be the U.S. team’s 57-kilo challenger. Gonzalez had the misfortune of drawing with Bulgaria’s own Svetlana Staneva in the quarterfinals, and Mendoza got her place by lasting one more day.
Once again, Gonzalez’s Olympic dream seemed dead.
“I love Alyssa, and she’s always been super sweet and humble, but at the same time, I was like, ‘What am I going to do now?’” Gonzalez said. “I was looking for a job, because my job was boxing. Since I didn’t make the team, I ran out of money and didn’t want to ask for help.”
But then USA Boxing asked her if she would be interested in making weight again to be the No. 2 fighter at 135 pounds. Gonzalez was hesitant, knowing she would support Ellis, but agreed when she learned that Ellis might not last long on the show.
Gonzalez added weight quite easily, and when Ellis actually left US boxing in a division attributed to disciplinary reasons, Gonzalez suddenly became the US’s No. 1 contender at lightweight. She went to the Pan American Games last fall and reached the semifinals, becoming the first American boxer to qualify for Paris.
Along with his usual intense training, Gonzalez has been preparing for the Olympics in other ways. She dyed part of her hair pink – her favorite color – to stand out and got the Olympic rings tattooed on her thigh in mid-January.
“My dad was kind of mad because he said, ‘You’re not an Olympian yet,’” Gonzalez said with a smile. “‘You are not there.’ I was like, ‘I’m not losing my ticket this time.'”
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