Bronze and Better or Bust for Fuchs at World Championships

By Peter Lim

Houston's Virginia Fuchs will have to finish in the top four at the AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships, May 19-27, in Astana, Kazakhstan, to earn a berth at the 2016 Olympics in Rio De Janeiro this summer. Fuchs' American teammates, lightweight Mikaela Mayer and middleweight Claressa Shields have already qualified for Rio but will nevertheless also be competing at the world championships.

"I'm super psyched," Fuchs told The Houston Chronicle. "This is the last tournament for me to qualify for the Olympics so I'm ready to compete and ready to do what I need to do to get my ticket to Rio."

Competing as a flyweight, Fuchs made the US team with two upset wins over 2012 Olympic bronze medalist Marlen Esparza at the Olympic Trials, a double elimination tournament, in October. In the first Olympic qualifier, Fuchs, 27, had to win gold or silver at the Continental Games in Buenos Aires in March to secure a berth in Rio. But she fell a tad short, losing in the semifinals to a boxer from Venezuela and had to settle for bronze.

"I was very disappointed," Fuchs said. "It was actually the toughest loss I've ever had because that was my ticket to Rio. I was too confident and sometimes that's bad. I didn't fight my fight, basically. I fought her fight."

A latecomer to the sport, Fuchs first laced on gloves at age 21. She was a cross country runner and an undergraduate at the Louisiana State University when she made the transition from hitting the dirt trails to hitting other living, breathing human beings in the squared circle. Almost immediately, she fell in love with the sport and within only two years of trading in her running shoes for boxing gloves, she was accomplished enough to place fourth in a field of eight at the 2012 Olympic trials.

"It's what I love to do. It's fun," Fuchs said. "It's not overwhelming to me. I don't get tired of it. I'd rather be doing this than sit at a desk for eight hours a day. I feel super blessed that I get to do this."

Fuchs, a southpaw, showed up two weeks early at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs to get a head start on the three week training camp to prepare for the world championships. Boxing coach Billy Walsch of Ireland was recruited to train the US women's team.

"I'm very confident," Fuchs said. "I've been super focused on trying to correct the little mistakes that I had from my last loss. I'm perfecting everything and making all of it come together so I can be ready for any kind of boxer – runners, aggressors or someone who keeps her distance. I'm definitely in the best shape of my life.