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Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

While You Were Sleeping: Katie Taylor Wins Ireland’s First Gold Medal Of The 2012 Olympics, Makes History For Women Boxers

by Kellie Foxx-Gonzalez | 11:45 am, August 10th, 2012


Katie Taylor won Ireland’s first gold medal of the games, the ninth Olympic gold medal in Ireland’s history, and the first gold medal in women’s boxing (60 kg), a new sport added to the Olympics. (via The New York Times.)

  • American Brittany Reese clinched the gold during the women’s long jump. Russia’s Elena Sokolova picked up the silver, and American Janay Deloach picked up bronze. (via The Huffington Post.)
  • Russia’s Natalya Antyukh picked up the gold in the women’s 400m hurdles event. American Lashinda Demus placed in 2nd, and Czech Republic’s Zuzana Hejnova placed in 3rd. (via BBC.)
  • American Allyson Felix placed in 1st during the women’s 200m. Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce placed in 2nd, and American Carmelita Jeter placed in 3rd. (via Chicago Sun-Times.)

  • Team USA dominated women’s beach volleyball, picking up the gold and silver. Team Brazil placed in 3rd. (via Examiner.)
  • Great Britain’s Nicola Adams clinched the gold in the women’s fly boxing event, becoming the first-ever Olympic women’s Boxing champion. China’s Cancan Ren placed in 2nd, and America’s Marian Esparaza and India’s Chungneijang Mery Kom Hmangte placed in 3rd. (via London 2012.)
  • America’s Claressa Shields placed in 1st during women’s boxing (75 kg). Russia’s Nadezda Torlopova placed in 2nd, and Kazakhstan’s Marina Volnova and China’s Jinzi Li placed in 3rd. (via Boston Herald.)

  • Team Hungary won the women’s kayak 500m. Team Germany placed in 2nd, and Team Belarus placed in 3rd. (via The Chicago Tribune.)
  • China’s Jingyu Wu clinched the gold during Taekwondo (-49 kg). Spain’s Brigitte Yague Enrique placed in 2nd, and Thailand’s Chanatip Sonkham and Croatia’s Lucija Zaninovic placed in 3rd. (via Yahoo.)
  • Japan’s Hitomi Obara won the women’s 48kg wrestling freestyle event. Azerbaijan’s Mariya Stadnyk picked up the silver, and American Clarissa Kyoko Mei Ling Chun and Canadian Carol Huynh picked up bronze medals. (via The Washington Post.)

  • Japan’s Kaori Icho placed in 1st in the women’s 63kg wrestling freestyle event. China’s Ruixue Jing placed in 2nd, and Mongolia’s Battsetseg Soronzonbold and Russia’s Lubov Volosova placed in 3rd. (via Taipei Times.)
  • Czech Republic’s Barbora Spotakova picked up the gold during the women’s javelin throw. Germany athletes Christina Obergfoll andLinda Stahl  picked up silver and gold, respectively. (via Reuters.)
  • Hungary’s Danuta Kozak clinched the gold during the women’s kayak single 500m event. Ukraine’s Inna Osypenko-Radomska placed in 2nd, and South Africa’s Bridgitte Hartley placed in 3rd. (via The Washington Post.)

  • Germany’s Tina Dietze and Franziska Weber picked up the gold during the women’s kayak double 500m event. Hungary’s Katalin Kovacs and Natasa Douchev-Janics placed in 2nd, and Poland’s Karolina Naja and Beata Mikolajczyk placed in 3rd. (via Zimbio.)
  • China’s Ruolin Chen placed in 1st during the women’s 10m platform diving event. Australia’s Brittany Broben placed in 2nd, and Malaysia’s Pandelela Rinong Pamg placed in 3rd. (via SB Nation.)
  • Team USA picked up the gold in women’s football. Team Japan won silver, and Team Canada won bronze. (via CNN.)

  • Hungary’s Eva Risztov placed 1st in the women’s 10km swimming marathon. America’s Haley Anderson placed in 2nd, and Italy’s Martina Grimaldi placed in 3rd. (via AFP.)
  • Great Britain’s Jade Jones placed in 1st during the women’s -57kg Taekwondo event. China’s Yuzhuo Hou placed in 2nd, and France’s Marlene Harnois and Taipei’s Li-Cheng Tseng placed in 3rd. (via BBC.)
  • Team USA clinched the gold during the women’s water polo event, their first one in history. Team Spain placed in 2nd, and Team Australia placed in 3rd. (via CBS.)

  • Japan’s Saori Yoshida placed in 1st during the women’s 55kg freestyle kayak event, winning her 3rd straight Olympic gold. Canada’s Tonya Lynn Verbeek placed in 2nd, and Azerbaijan’s Yuliya Ratkevich and Colombia’s Jackeline Renteria Castillo placed in 3rd. (via AFP.)
  • Russia’s Natalia Vorobieva clinched the gold during the women’s 72kg freestyle wrestling event. Bulgaria’s Stanka Zlateva Hristova placed in 2nd, and Kazakhstan’s Guzel Manyurova and Spain’s Maider Unda placed in 3rd. (via The Washington Post.)

Previously in The 2012 London Olympics

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  • Anonymous

    I feel that you’ve done Clarissa Shields a huge disservice here – she ALSO won the gold in boxing, not necessarily just ”placing first.” (Though semantically, you could argue it’s the same thing, but people place in finals and quarterfinals, so the distinction here is to illustrate that Shields took home the medal not where she landed in terms of categorization.)  Additionally, Shields has the distinction of being the second youngest boxer to win gold. 

  • Alana Beltzer

     I’m so excited to hear that Clarissa won. NPR did a profile on her during the Olympic trials and I was so impressed by her. Here’s to making your dreams come true!

  • John Wao

    They’re already talking about making a movie about Misty-May and Kerri. here’s my attempt at casting.

    Kerri – Cameron Diaz
    Misty May – Demi Moore

  • Anonymous

    Me too! I’m a bit chuffed I didn’t get to see the fight, only the recap. There is a great article about her on Sports Illustrated and women in boxing, and I would watch them so hard! 

    (Psst. Michigan represent!)

  • Jeanette Diaz

    Claressa Shields was also the ONLY American boxer to win a Gold Medal!

  • Anonymous

    Your facts are slightly wrong, the first Gold medal for a female boxer went to Nicola Adams (51kg). She fought the bout before Katie Taylor. Please check your facts before publishing it’s a bit lazy.

  • Anonymous

    Yes I know you mention Nicola later in the article, but as the first gold medal female boxer why doesn’t she get the history making headline?

  • Anonymous

    If you read carefully, you’ll notice that I said it’s the “first gold medal in women’s boxing (60 kg)”, noting that specific division. Oops on your part :]

  • Anonymous

    Because Ireland has only ever won 9 gold medals, making it a pretty huge deal for them.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Ryan-Quavey-Havers/1593505278 Ryan ‘Quavey’ Havers

    Nicola Adams is a lenged. She makes me proud to be British!

    Grats to the other medalists too!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Ryan-Quavey-Havers/1593505278 Ryan ‘Quavey’ Havers

    Nicola Adams is a lenged. She makes me proud to be British!

    Grats to the other medalists too!

  • Anonymous

    So are you going to say that for every weight division. Really, are you serious? So why not go with the America, Clarissa Shields?

  • http://twitter.com/Elimare Elisa Redmond

     There’s also the fact that it was Katie Taylor who petitioned to have

  • Anonymous

    Look, I don’t want some kind of fight over this. BTW this fact is not mentioned in the article and is not even relevant as I sure other boxers/organisations would have been involved in getting the sport introduced. I just want fair representation of what actually happened. This is lazy writing, and why the Irish woman and not the American or the Briton was chosen I do not know other than the writer just seeing what she wanted to see. Look, they are all history makers and all need fair recognition.

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