Back on Track
Above: Jajaira Gonzalez nails Camila Pineiro during their Pan-Am Games quarterfinal bout. (Photo by Martin Bernetti/AFP via Getty Images)
AFTER YEARS OF SETBACKS AND FAMILY STRIFE, VETERAN AMATEUR STANDOUT JAJAIRA GONZALEZ’S OLYMPIC DREAM IS IN FOCUS AGAIN
The road to a berth on an Olympic boxing team is usually a straight line. Jajaira Gonzalez’s road to Paris in 2024 as a member of Team USA was anything but that. So when her hand was raised after a unanimous decision win over Camila Pineiro in the quarterfinals of the 2023 Pan-American Games on October 25, making her the United States’ representative at 60 kg (132 pounds), it wasn’t the usual “feel good” boxing story. In fact, the 26-year-old didn’t even get a chance to properly celebrate.
“Honestly, the first thing that went through my mind was, ‘Wow, I really did it,’ and I was very happy. But, at the same time, I don’t think it hit me as hard because my goal was not only to qualify, but to get a gold at Pan-Ams. So the fact that I knew that I still had to fight two more times for a gold medal, that was my main focus. It was like, ‘All right, you did it, but the job’s still not done. You still got to keep going.’”
Gonzalez didn’t get her gold medal in Santiago, Chile, losing a split decision to eventual tournament winner Beatriz Ferreira, but when she returned home to Glendora, California, she realized just how far she’d come to get to this point.
“I have enjoyed it a little bit,” she said. “Sometimes when I’m by myself or I’m with some of my teammates that also qualified, we’ll just out of nowhere be like, ‘We’re really going to Paris!’ or start screaming in the car, ‘This is crazy! We really did it!’”
A teenaged Gonzalez won gold at the 2014 Summer Youth Olympic Games in China. (Photo by Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)
From the first time she put on the gloves, Gonzalez was expected to be here, representing the United States and fighting for gold. Trained by her father, Jose, and sister to three fighting brothers, most notably three-time featherweight title challenger Joet and unbeaten lightweight Jousce, boxing was in her blood, and she had the potential to be the most accomplished member of the family, with a laundry list of medals and accolades at the Junior and Youth levels. And even though she lost out on a spot on the 2016 Olympic team to future junior lightweight champ Mikaela Mayer, the future was still bright.
Until it wasn’t anymore.
By 2018, Gonzalez had done a two-year stint with the U.S. Army and had been eliminated in the first round of the National championship tournament. By the end of 2019, she was largely estranged from her family due to her relationship with Shakur Stevenson, who she dated during his amateur days and remained friends with. When Stevenson faced Joet for the vacant WBO featherweight title in October 2019, it was widely reported – and even played up by ESPN, the network that aired the title bout – that Jose and Joet ceased speaking to Jajaira during the build-up to what became a grudge match.
“I always had that thought in the back of my mind that I’m not done with this yet.”
As far as her own career went, she left California for Virginia, got a job at a kickboxing gym, and put the sport she was disillusioned with on the back burner.
“I just think about how during those times I just felt so alone and felt like nobody could really understand me,” she said. “They could say that they do, but to actually go through it and to hear somebody go through it that you’re close to, it’s just totally – it’s very different.”
Add in the COVID-19 pandemic, and it appeared that Gonzalez’s time in the ring was over. But she always knew she’d return.
“I always had that thought in the back of my mind that I’m not done with this yet,” she said. “I had missed it so much during my break that I knew what the goal was, and I had set that goal years back and I just didn’t want to give up on that goal. That was still my dream. So I always knew in the back of my mind that I was going to come back and do what I said I was going to do.”
And that was?
“Get back in shape, get back on the team, get my spot, and get this Olympic gold medal.”
Ambitious. Remember that straight line to a spot on an Olympic team? Gonzalez had twisted, turned, and shook up that line. And put on 35 pounds to boot. But when she decided to put the gloves back on in 2021, she was determined and well aware that there was a huge hill to climb to get to where she wanted to go.
Gonzalez displays her Pan Am Games bronze medal — aka her ticket to Paris. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)
“To be honest, there was some doubt in there,” Gonzalez said. “At first, it started off where I was just trying to get back in shape. I knew I was so far behind, but I told myself that it was a process.”
It was a process that included a move back to California to train with her father once more.
“I thought I was doing good in Virginia, but training with my dad is just totally different,” she laughs. “And it was stressful, but I just kept telling myself that I was made for more than just working a regular job.”
As for Jose Gonzalez’s reaction to his prodigal daughter coming home?
“My dad was supportive, but I know in the back of his mind he wasn’t really taking me serious,” she said. “It was like, ‘Okay, I support you in whatever you do, but we’re going to see if you’re really about it.’ (laughs) And once he saw that I was in there and doing everything that he was telling me, that’s when he was like, ‘Okay, she’s actually serious; she really wants to do this.’”
In December of 2021, Gonzalez won the USA National Championships, and when Rashida Ellis was ruled out of contention for the United States’ 60 kg spot due to disciplinary reasons, the door opened for the Californian to sing her redemption song. And she did.
“I felt like this was always going to be it for me,” she said. “I tried other things and nothing felt like home to me. Boxing was where I was always the most comfortable, and I thought I needed a break from it. I was really only planning for it to be a year break, but then COVID happened, so then I ended up gaining a lot of weight and that kind of set me back a little bit. It was hard to get back into it, and my mindset had got just really lazy. But I always felt like it was destiny, especially the way that I came back.”
All that’s left is an Olympic gold medal, and what a storybook ending that will be.
“It would definitely mean a lot to me, just knowing everything that I had to go through to get to where I’m at, and the fact that I never gave up and I kept pushing and I was never a hater,” Gonzalez said. “I always supported everyone, I showed everyone mad love, and I just waited for my turn and now my turn is here. So I’m taking full advantage of that.”
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