It's been a long week of waiting, but Friday was finally my first day of competition. Since I received a bye, I was in the morning session--the very first fighter up in bout 1 to decide if I'd be advancing into the gold medal round tomorrow. My opponent was from Kazakhstan, which is one of the strongest boxing countries in the world. I believe their national sport is boxing.
The first round started off a little shaky and awkward since it was my first fight and I've been waiting around all week. I had to get the cobwebs out, but my game plan was to hit, move forward, never go back, reshoot my combinations and turn. These were my keys to success and I won the fight against a very tough opponent.
Tomorrow I will be fighting another tough opponent from Russia, and I'm ready to bring back a gold medal for Team USA!