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Mandy Bujold's is finally going to achieve a lifelong goal of competing in the Olympics this summer in Rio, but it all started at the age of 16 where her first inspiration for boxing began. When moving to Kitchener after spending the most of your childhood in New Brunswick, her brother joined the local Waterloo Regional Boxing Academy where she would later follow in his footsteps. From there, her love and passion for boxing grew to what it has become today, resulting in a lot of success along the way. The 9-time national champ was the first female boxer in history to ever record two gold medals, let alone back-to-back, at the Pan American Games. Her first dating back in 2011, then defending her title in 2015.
One of the toughest barriers she faced in her career was when she did not qualify for the 2012 summer Olympics. Despite being the top boxer in North America, due to the way the qualifier was set up, which has changed since then, she was unable to make the cut. "It was devastating, but I was able to turn that around and focus for another four years and now it's finally paid off". With Rio just around the corner, she is training harder than ever. Working out of a training facility in Toronto three times a day, she is making sure she ready to represent not only her hometown, but also every Canadian and female boxers around the world on the biggest stage.
What most Canadian Olympian can agree on is that there is a lack of funding that is put in place to help support them. Although recently announcing her partnership with Under Armour, she still relies on donations from her community. If you would like to help support Mandy, visit her website for more information.
