Although women have participated in boxing for almost as long as the sport has existed, female fights have been effectively outlawed for most of boxing's history until recently, with athletic commissioners refusing to sanction or issue licenses to women boxers, and most nations officially banning the sport. Reports of women entering the ring go back to the 18th century.
The United States of America (USA) competed at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. 527 competitors, 332 men and 195 women, took part in 230 events in 27 sports. The United States finished outside of the top two in the overall medal count for the first time and in the gold medal count for only the second time. That was mainly caused by the extensive state-sponsored doping programs that were developed in these communist countries to fulfil their political agenda on an international stage.
The boxing tournaments at the 2012 Olympic Games in London were held from 28 July to 12 August at the ExCeL Exhibition Centre.
Brazil competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, from 27 July to 12 August 2012. This was the nation's twenty-first appearance at the Summer Olympics, having missed the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam. The Brazilian Olympic Committee sent a total of 258 athletes to the Games, 136 men and 122 women, to compete in 24 sports. Brazil left London with a total of 17 Olympic medals, winning their third largest number of medals at a single games.
Yenebier Adelina Guillén Benítez is a Dominican boxer who competes as a 75 kilogram middleweight, Pan American Champion and Female Boxer in 2013 and silver medal at the 2011 Pan American Games. She also won the gold medal at the 2008 Central American and Caribbean Championship, 2013 Bolivarian Games and 2014 Central American and Caribbean Games.
The men's middleweight boxing competition at the 2012 Olympic Games in London was held from 28 July to 12 August at the ExCeL Exhibition Centre.
The women's flyweight boxing competition at the 2012 Olympic Games in London was held from 5 to 9 August at the ExCeL Exhibition Centre.
The women's lightweight boxing competition at the 2012 Olympic Games in London was held from 5 to 9 August at the ExCeL Exhibition Centre.
Claressa Maria Shields is an American professional boxer and professional mixed martial artist. She has held multiple world championships in five weight classes, including the undisputed female light middleweight title since March 2021; the World Boxing Organization (WBO) female light heavyweight title and the World Boxing Council (WBC) and World Boxing Federation (WBF) female heavyweight titles since July 2024; WBC and IBF female super middleweight titles from 2017 to 2018. Shields currently holds the record for becoming a two and three division world champion in the fewest professional fights. As of October 2022, she is ranked the world's best active female middleweight by BoxRec, as well as the best active female boxer, pound for pound, by ESPN and The Ring.
Marlen Esparza is an American professional boxer who is the former WBC, WBO, WBA and Ring female world flyweight champion. As an amateur, in 2012 she became the first American female boxer to qualify for the Olympics, in the first year that women's boxing was an Olympic event, going on to win a bronze medal in the women's flyweight division at the London Olympics. This made her the first American woman winner of any Olympic boxing medal.
Savannah Rose Marshall is a British professional boxer and professional mixed martial artist. She has held world championships in two weight classes: the undisputed and Ring magazine female super-middleweight title since 2023; and the World Boxing Organization (WBO) female middleweight title from 2020 to 2022. As an amateur, she became the first British female world champion after securing gold at the 2012 World Championships.
Marina Ivanovna Volnova is a Kazakhstani female amateur boxer. She won the bronze medal in the Women's boxing middleweight 75kg category in the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Nadezhda Viktorovna Torlopova is a Russian boxer. She is the 2010 AIBA World Champion.
Ariane Fortin is a Canadian southpaw amateur boxer. She is a two-time World Boxing Champion. She also won a silver medal in the middleweight category at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and a bronze medal at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto, Canada.
Ecuador competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016. It was the nation's fourteenth appearance at the Summer Olympics since its debut in 1924.
Trinidad and Tobago competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, from August 5 to 21, 2016. This was the nation's seventeenth appearance at the Summer Olympics, although it previously competed in four other editions as a British colony, and as part of the West Indies Federation.
Nouchka Fontijn is a retired Dutch boxer. She was the European champion in the women's middleweight or 75 kg class after winning gold at both the European Championships in 2014 and the European Games in 2015.
Tori Jovan Nelson is an American professional boxer. She is a former three-weight world champion, having held the WBC female middleweight title in 2011: the WIBA middleweight title in 2012; the WIBA welterweight from 2013 to 2014; and the WIBA super middleweight title in 2016. As of September 2020, she is ranked as the third best active female middleweight by The Ring by BoxRec.
The women's middleweight boxing event at the 2020 Summer Olympics took place between 28 July and 8 August 2021 at the Ryōgoku Kokugikan. 17 boxers from 17 nations competed, Khadija El-Mardi from Morocco having withdrawn before the competition began.
