From Wild Child to Olympian: Mikaela Mayer Chasing Boxing Glory in Rio

Mikaela Mayer is just a few days away from opening her quest for Olympic gold in Rio as a member of Team USA boxing, and she carries with her a story that needs to be told.

It starts nine years ago with a troubled teenager looking for some direction in her life.

She made plenty of bad choices back then.

Her only concerns as a 17-year-old girl growing up in the Los Angeles area were her friends, partying and sometimes modeling. She was on her fourth high school, frequently getting into trouble and on track to graduate a year late.

Mayer was a wild child, but she soon realized that her life wasn’t what she envisioned for herself and something needed to change.

“I was at a time in my life where nothing I was doing had any real positive impact on my growth,” Mayer told Bleacher Report from Rio. “I was craving something more.”

Ed Andrieski/Associated Press/Associated Press

That something more turned out to be boxing.

She walked down the street from her father’s apartment and signed herself up for lessons at a local Muay Thai Kickboxing club, and so began the process that led her from the wrong track to the Summer Games.

“I signed myself up and within three weeks of training I had stopped going out on Friday nights with my friends so I could get up early Saturday morning and train,” Mayer said. “I buckled down in school, ended up graduating on time and really became hungry for success. Friends eventually stopped calling, but I didn’t mind because I found something I was truly passionate about. I wanted to be the best.”

Mayer—who was born on the Fourth of July and finds it quite exciting to share a birthday with the country whose flag she will represent at the Olympics, is one of just two American women to qualify for Rio.

Her teammate Claressa Shields became the first American woman to capture an Olympic gold medal in boxing at the 2012 London Games and is a favorite to repeat.

Boxing is a male-dominated sport where little comes easy for women. They have to work twice as hard as the men to receive a fraction of the attention and recognition.

But with the men struggling of late—no American man has won gold since Andre Ward did so in 2004, and the whole team failed to medal in 2012—the opportunity for female fighters to put their work into the headlines has arrived.

And it gives Mayer a shot to use her story to show young girls who could be heading down the wrong path that there is not only a way out, but that you can achieve something great, even if the odds seem long. 

“I'm hoping to make my country proud and inspire young girls across the nation,” Mayer said about what she hopes to accomplish in Rio. “Not only do I feel the pressure of winning for myself, but I feel I have a duty for my country and for women’s boxing in America. It’s a very underrepresented sport, and Claressa [Shields] and I have an opportunity to help shine a light on it for future generations.”

Mayer is the type of person who thrives under pressure. She earned her trip to Rio with a no-doubt performance against Mexico’s Victoria Torres in the final of an Americas Qualifier this past March in Buenos Aires.

She had to navigate a tricky field, which included fighters who had bested her in the past and won international competitions, to make her Olympic dream a reality.

It’s easy to fall into the moment and adopt a “just happy to be here” mentality.

It took Mayer a little while to get used to the idea that she was an Olympian—it would pop into her head and stop her in her tracks while going about her day-to-day life—but she isn’t just happy to be here.

“Since I made the team I've been saying, ‘I didn't come this far to only come this far.’ Making the team is definitely not enough,” Mayer said. “We’re all here because we’re all highly skilled, but what’s going to separate us is performance. Who is going to perform to the best of their ability when the time comes. Your mental game plays a huge role in performing under such pressure but I'm prepared to do it. I think pressure pushes me to rise to the occasion, and I want to leave here with gold.”

The road to a gold medal in Rio is difficult.

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Ireland’s Katie Taylor is the defending Olympic gold medalist in the women’s lightweight division—where Mayer competes—and she’s been lights out with 18 golds in 19 international competitions during her career.

You can see why she’s the favorite heading into these Games.

Mayer’s a realist.

She gets it.

This is the Olympics. It’s not supposed to be easy.

“Katie [Taylor] has been the best boxer in my division since I started boxing and she is no doubt a top competitor,” Mayer said about her competition in Rio. “Only 12 girls in the world were given spots in this Olympic Games and all 12 of them are talented and experienced, including myself."

“We are all here for a reason and we all want that medal," Mayer said. "I'd be a fool to look past any one of them but I'd also be a fool to put any one of them on a pedestal as everyone is beatable.”

Kevin McRae is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. You can follow him on Twitter @McRaeWrites. All quotes were obtained firsthand.