“I begged that girls don’t box, girls don’t fight. It’s a boy sport.” USA Olympic women’s boxer Jajaira Gonzalez recalls her reluctance to the sport when her dad first encouraged her to get into the ring. “I first started boxing when I was eight years old. My dad kind of forced me into it, not kind of, he did force me into it. He was training my two older brothers and just wanted his daughter to box.”
Winning her first few fights changed Gonzalez’s mind, and the desire to pursue the sport increased after female boxing became an Olympic sport in 2012. Gonzalez says, “I was like, ‘I want to be an Olympian.’ I remember seeing Marla Esparza, also a Mexican American, and I wanted to be like that, fighting for our country.”
Gonzalez enjoyed early success in her career, but a loss that she felt she didn’t deserve, which kept her out of the 2016 Olympics, started a downward spiral that got worse due to “a really toxic relationship.” She recalls, “My mental health was just horrible.” 2020 brought the global pandemic, and it went from bad to worse. “COVID happened, and it was a really dark place in my life. I felt very alone, and I just didn’t really care.”
Social media is often blamed for the declining mental health of people, especially young ones, and so it is interesting that an Instagram post is what redirected Gonzalez toward a better place in her life. She explains, “I was scrolling through Instagram and I see USA boxing had their team out in Spain…. that’s kind of when it hit me. I need to get back into the sport.”
It is no accident that Gonzalez’s path back to stronger mental health coincided with her regained purpose to try and make the Olympic team. In an article in Psychiatry.org, it is stated, “Research indicates that having a purpose in life is good for mental health. For example, having a greater purpose in life was significantly associated with lower levels of depression and anxiety.”
Gonzalez’s path to stronger mental health and her dedication to making the USA Olympic team are documented in a short documentary film that was co-directed by Jodi Norton and Maureen Morrison. It is the first in a series called 51% The Women of Team USA, which the filmmakers are producing, and GameChange is distributing.
Gonzalez hopes that her story is an inspiration to other young girls who might want to give boxing a try, and she offers them this advice: “Stay dedicated, stay focused, and always put yourself first.”
