Women's Boxing American Continental Championships -- Day 3|Sarah Deming

Now I know why sportswriters gloat when their favorites win. I held my head a little higher after 17 year-old Claressa Shields of Flint, Mich. thoroughly outclassed Brazil's Roseli Feitosa, a 2010 World Champion and the vastly more experienced fighter.Shields knelt in prayer in her corner before the match began."I prayed there would be no serious injuries for either of us and that the judging would be fair," she said.The referee made the two women touch gloves, which they did with the bare minimum of warmth. Brazil's middleweight hopeful was a stocky blonde who had moved down from a higher weight. Shields was moving up, and I was nervous about her ability to handle the strength of older, larger opponents. I wasn't the only one worried; knuckles were white across the press row and among the assembled U.S. boxers behind us. "Breathe, 'Ressa!" yelled Marlen Esparza.Other Brazilians came and joined us: Claudio Aires (a.k.a The Mountain of Brazil), whose neck is the size of my thighs; the cute assistant coach with the headband; team manager Cidinha Oliveira, who I learned was the first female referee in Brazil and is considered the mother of women's boxing there. Igor put my question to the table."Aggressive. Technical," said Oliveira."Not clinching," added the Mountain. Like most enormous muscle men he seemed quite gentle up close.Some of the answer to Brazil's dominance may lie in Igor's own excellent work; the Brazilians appear to be the physically strongest team here and when I asked him what they had worked on, he reeled off http://www.olympic.org/boxing - http://www.olympic.org/boxing - an impressive list: "Reaction speed, anaerobic resistance, power, body mass composition." I also have a hunch that Claudio Aires, who has been in charge of both the men's and women's programs for the past three years, is a superb coach. And it doesn't hurt that energy giant Petrobras has taken an interest in the team, giving them three times as much money in the past year as they ever had before. They may have some surprises for the world at the Games.USA Boxing needs to take a lesson from Brazil and put the best people in charge of our fighters. Recent Olympics have seen a steady decline in our performance, and I don't think it's due to lack of talent but lack of leadership. We're so close to London and yet nobody here in Cornwall even knows who the head coach will be! We have a great team of women, the strongest we have ever had, and they deserve better than a revolving door.