Story: American boxer Jennifer Lozano She'll make her Olympic debut on Thursday at the Paris Games, and her family will be there to support her thanks to a fundraiser in her hometown of Laredo, Texas.
After Lozano won her golden ticket to the Olympics last October, her family began selling shirts and soliciting donations.
“And it was really hard to actually get the support to raise the money, but it was made possible at the last minute, so I'm just happy. It meant so much to me that everyone started buying, all the businesses started pitching, buying shirts, donating to GoFundMe, donating personally. So now my family is here.”
The money raised was about $6,000, enough for the family of seven to fly to and stay in the French capital.
Lozano is currently the top boxer in the 50kg division on the U.S. team.
But her journey from a small border town to competing in the Olympics was not an easy one.
“Everyone called me the troublemaker because of my grandma. That's the nickname my grandma gave me because I always did a lot of stupid things as a kid. I was always causing trouble at home, getting into trouble. I'm the youngest of three kids, so I was always everywhere. I also got bullied a lot as a kid. I was really fat and people made fun of me because of my accent. My first language is Spanish, so when I tried to speak English, I would force it. So kids just made fun of me for that. I was a kid, and it annoyed me. So I was fighting a lot in the streets, and that's when I started boxing, to defend myself.”
When the 21-year-old qualified to go to Paris, the first thing she did was run to her mother and hug her.
Lozano won her first gold medal in Paris and is hoping to repeat the result.
“Those are my guys. They've seen me sweat. They've seen me cry. They've seen me bleed. They've seen the process that social media, the team, nobody really sees. So to have them here cheering me on and hearing them from the stands is everything I ever dreamed of and hoped for.”
