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, 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 Val Barker Trophy is presented every four years to the most "outstanding boxer" at the Olympic Games. In theory, the award goes to the top "pound for pound" boxer in the Olympics. The winner is selected by a committee of International Boxing Association (amateur) (AIBA) officials. The trophy is named after British boxer Val Barker who won the Amateur Boxing Association of England (ABA) heavyweight title in 1891, before becoming the secretary of the AIBA between 1926 and 1929.
Great Britain, represented by the British Olympic Association (BOA), competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. The United Kingdom was represented by the British Olympic Association (BOA), and the team of selected athletes was officially known as Team GB. Britain is one of only five NOCs to have competed in every modern Summer Olympic Games since 1896. The delegation of 547 people included 311 competitors – 168 men, 143 women – and 236 officials. The team was made up of athletes from the whole United Kingdom including Northern Ireland. Additionally some British overseas territories compete separately from Britain in Olympic competition.
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 second largest number of medals at a single games, a performance only surpassed 4 years later in Rio de Janeiro, when Brazil was the host country.
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 mixed martial artist. She has held multiple world championships in three weight classes, including the undisputed female light middleweight title since March 2021; the undisputed female middleweight title from 2019 to 2020; and the unified WBC and IBF female super middleweight titles from 2017 to 2018. Shields currently holds the record for becoming a two and three-weight world champion in the fewest professional fights. As of November 2020, she is ranked as the world's best active female light middleweight by The Ring and BoxRec, as well as the best active female boxer, pound for pound, by Lineal Boxing Champion and ESPN, second by The Ring, and fourth by BoxRec.
Marlen Esparza is an American professional boxer who held the WBC female flyweight title since June 2021 and who challenged for the WBA interim female flyweight title in 2019. As an amateur she became the first American woman 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 2012 Olympics in London.
Savannah Rose Marshall is a British professional boxer who has held the WBO female middleweight title since October 2020. As an amateur, she became the first British female world champion after securing gold at the 2012 World Championships. She has been nicknamed as the 'Silent Assassin' due to her shyness. As of October 2020, she is ranked as the world's second best active female middleweight by BoxRec and the fifth best active super-middleweight by The Ring.
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 is the current European champion in the women's middleweight or 75 kg class after winning gold at both the European Games in 2015 and the European Championships in 2014.
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.
