Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||
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National team | USA Boxing | ||||||||||||||||||||
Born | Fayetteville, North Carolina, U.S. | May 15, 1989||||||||||||||||||||
Education | Pine Forest High School (NC) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | Boxing | ||||||||||||||||||||
Weight class | Middleweight | ||||||||||||||||||||
Club | U.S. Army WCAP | ||||||||||||||||||||
Military career | |||||||||||||||||||||
Allegiance | United States | ||||||||||||||||||||
Service/ | United States Army | ||||||||||||||||||||
Years of service | 2013–present | ||||||||||||||||||||
Rank | Sergeant first class | ||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Naomi Melissa Graham is an American middleweight boxer. She is a staff sergeant and ammunition specialist in the United States Army. Graham is the first female active duty service member to fight for the U.S. at the Olympics. [1]
Graham was brought up in Fayetteville, North Carolina where she was the youngest of six children. A sister, Rachel, who was six years older than her took up professional boxing, but Naomi did not, as her mother objected. [1] When she was 21, she was made homeless by her mother. [2] In 2012, she was inspired by seeing women like Nicola Adams competing in the 2012 Summer Olympics. She joined the army in 2013 and two years later she joined the Army's World Class Athlete Program.
In 2019, Graham won silver at the Pan American Games, which was later upgraded to gold due to her opponent's in the final disqualification for doping. [3] Naomi became the first female active duty service member to compete for the U.S. at the Olympics. She was in Tokyo for the postponed 2020 Summer Olympics in 2021. [1] [4]
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.
Katie Taylor is an Irish professional boxer and former footballer. She is the undisputed and lineal world lightweight champion since 2019, and the undisputed and lineal world super lightweight champion since 2023.
Mangte Chungneijang "Mary" Kom is an Indian Olympic boxer, politician, and former Member of Rajya Sabha. She is the only woman to win the World Amateur Boxing Championship six times, the only female boxer to have won a medal in each one of the first seven World Championships, and the only boxer to win eight World Championship medals. Nicknamed Magnificent Mary, she was the only Indian female boxer to have qualified for the 2012 Summer Olympics, where she competed in the flyweight (51 kg) category and won a bronze medal. She had also been ranked as the world's No. 1 female light-flyweight by the International Boxing Association (amateur) (AIBA). She became the first Indian female boxer to win a gold medal in the Asian Games in 2014 at Incheon, South Korea and is the first Indian female boxer to win gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. She is also the only boxer to become Asian Amateur Boxing Champion for a record six times. Mary Kom won the 51kg gold in President's Cup in Indonesia.
Nicola Virginia Adams is a British former professional boxer who competed from 2017 to 2019. She retired with an undefeated record and held the World Boxing Organization (WBO) female flyweight title in 2019. As an amateur, she became the first female boxer to become an Olympic champion after winning gold at London 2012, and the first double Olympic champion following a second gold medal at Rio 2016, both in the flyweight division. As of 27 May 2016 she was the reigning Olympic, World and European Games champion at flyweight, and won the entire set of amateur championships available to her – Olympic, Commonwealth and European Games' titles, and the World, European and European Union championships.
Jamel William Herring is an American professional boxer who held the WBO junior lightweight title from 2019 to 2021.
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Nesthy Alcayde Petecio is a Filipino amateur boxer. She won a silver medal in the inaugural women's featherweight event at the 2020 Summer Olympics, becoming the first Filipino woman to win an Olympic medal in boxing, and won a bronze medal in the women's flyweight event at the 2024 Summer Olympics. She also won a silver medal at the 2014 World Championships and gold at the 2019 edition.
Virginia "Ginny" Fuchs is an American professional boxer who is the interim WBC female super-flyweight champion. As an amateur she represented her country at the delayed 2020 Summer Olympics as well as winning a bronze medal at the 2018 World Championships and a silver medal at the 2019 Pan American Games.
Pine Forest High School is a public high school in Fayetteville, North Carolina. It is situated on Andrews Road, close to Howard Hall Elementary School, Pine Forest Middle School, and Methodist University. The mascot for Pine Forest is the Trojan warrior.
Shelby Walker was an American professional boxer and mixed martial artist. Walker, also known as Shelby Girl, was born as Shelby Rogers.
Jessica McCaskill is a former American professional boxer. She is a former world champion in two weight classes, having held the undisputed, IBO and Ring female welterweight titles; the WBC female super-lightweight title and the WBA female super-lightweight title. She also challenged for the WBA lightweight title.
Irish Magno is a Filipino amateur boxer who has represented the Philippines in international amateur competitions including the Asian Games and the World Championships. She has also qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympics, becoming the first female Filipino boxer to qualify for the Games. She did not win for her country but managed to get to the second round for her weight category.
Nadine Apetz is a German amateur boxer. She won bronze medals at the World Championships in 2016 and 2018, and gold at the 2017 EU Championships. In 2021, she became the first German woman to qualify for a boxing event at the Summer Olympic Games.
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Thambu Nelka Shiromala also known as Nelka Shiromala Thampu is a Sri Lankan police officer, boxing referee and former national boxer. Nelka is widely regarded as the first Sri Lankan female boxing referee. She has officiated in several local and international boxing matches as referee. She was also selected by the International Olympic Committee as one of the referees for the boxing competition at the 2020 Summer Olympics. She is regarded as one of the early pioneers of the women's boxing in Sri Lanka when it was originally introduced in the country in 2000s. She is nicknamed as "queen of the ring" in the boxing arena.
Cherneka Johnson is a New Zealand-Australian professional boxer. Born in New Zealand, she represents Australia in international competition. She is a two-weight world champion currently holding the WBA female bantamweight World title having previously been IBF female super-bantamweight World champion.