PARIS – Being the only girl in the ring was normal for Jajaira Gonzalez. For a very long time, it was all that she knew.
In fact, when she started boxing, she hated the sport solely because she always found that she was the only girl in the ring. It took years for Gonzalez to discover her love for the sweet science, find a balance in her life and endeavor to become one of the strongest female boxers in the world.
And now, it has all paid off with a trip to the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Four years after taking a hiatus from the sport, at age 27, Gonzalez qualified for her first Olympics and will be living out her dreams in Paris. Competing in the 60kg lightweight class beginning Saturday, she will have the chance to pursue a gold medal as a member of Team USA.
A native of Glendora, Gonzalez was not a fan of boxing growing up. That all changed when her dad Jose Gonzalez, who doubles as her coach, pushed her to see what was possible.
“Boxing was not something I wanted to pursue, my dad forced me into the sport,” Gonzalez said. “I hated it. I thought boxing was for boys.”
“Being his daughter, he sees my potential. So he’s always pushing me to my fullest potential. I love having my dad as my coach.”
Gonzalez was 8 when she started boxing. She was the only girl in her gym and would compete against the boys. It turned out that wasn’t an issue. She dominated nearly every match.
After winning in almost every competition she participated in, she used her victories as fuel to follow her dreams and pursue boxing further. In 2021, she decided to join the USA Team.
“It wasn’t until I started to compete, I started to realize I was really good at it and all my hard work would pay off,” Gonzalez said. “That’s when I started to love the sport.”
Her first taste of national success came quickly after she began representing her country. She won the gold medal in the lightweight weight class at the Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games to go with junior world titles in 2013, 2014 and 2015.
But in 2018, Gonzalez decided to take a one-year break from boxing to prioritize her mental health. Because of her anxiety, she wound up taking more time away from boxing than she anticipated.
“I developed anxiety in 2017. I would go to the hospital a lot, thinking my heart was going to stop,” Gonzalez said, recalling those struggles. “I was crying all the time and praying to God to heal me.”
When the COVID-19 global pandemic struck, she found herself in a loop which extended her intended one-year break into a four-year absence from boxing. In that time, she gained 30 pounds and started working a 9-to-5 job.
After seeing a post on the USA Boxing Instagram account about someone winning a medal in Spain, Gonzalez knew she was meant to be in the ring and reignited her ambition.
“Coming back from the sport was very hard because I was 30 to 35 pounds heavier,” she said. “I was super out of shape and I caught myself saying, ‘What if I don’t have it anymore?’
“But the more that I trained, my body got used to it again.”
After making her return in 2021, the fight game felt natural to her this time. She not only was unstoppable, but she felt unstoppable.
Now, she is an advocate that others put themselves first and prioritize mental health over anything that may be in the way. She learned to cope with her anxiety and emerged on the other side stronger in the ring.“Going to therapy and journaling helped me gain ‘that’ mindset back,” Gonzalez said. “I knew that if I was able to go through everything that I had gone through during my break, nothing could phase me anymore.”
Now approaching her Olympic debut, the Gonzalez’s dreams come to life as she competes for gold on the most prestigious stage in women’s boxing.
“I turned the bad things into motivation,” Gonzalez said. “Qualifying for Paris was definitely the reward.
“I had turned into my own hero.”
Lina Naranjo is a senior at Cal State Fullerton, majoring in communications. She strives to work within the entertainment industry and is covering the 2024 Paris Olympics for a CSUF study abroad program.
