Sports

Jajaira Gonzalez and Jahmal Harvey aim to revive U.S. reputation in Olympic boxing

Published

2 years ago

July 10, 2024

Jajaira Gonzalez and Jahmal Harvey aim to revive U.S. reputation in Olympic boxing

There was a time when the U.S. dominated Olympic boxing. In the three Summer Games the Americans took part in between 1976 and 1988, U.S. fighters made the podium in 26 of 35 divisions, winning 17 gold medals.

Among the boxers who won Olympic titles, then went on to win world championships as professionals, were Sugar Ray Leonard, Michael and Leon Spinks and Pernell Whitaker.

But lately? Not so much. The U.S. has won only 10 medals since 2004 — or one fewer than it won in 1984 alone. And Claressa Shields, a two-time women’s middleweight champion, is the only American to strike gold in that span.

That could change this summer. Although none of the eight boxers the U.S. is sending to Paris have fought in the Olympics, at least half are solid medal contenders. Their success will rest in large part on the draw to determine the bracket for each weight class, which is held the night before the first bout.

For women’s lightweight Jajaira Gonzalez and men’s featherweight Jahmal Harvey, it’s unlikely their paths through the brackets will be more challenging than the ones they took to get to Paris in the first place.

For Gonzalez, a three-time world junior champion as a teenager, the Olympics offer an opportunity for redemption after a three-year career pause.

“I was blessed with a second chance that not a lot of people get,” the Glendora native said. “I feel like this was destined for me, like I was supposed to be here.”

Gonzalez was supposed to make her Olympic debut eight years ago in Rio. But she was upset by Mikaela Mayer in the U.S. trials, losing a split decision in the deciding bout and failing to make the team. That started a downward spiral in which Gonzalez began to skip training and saw her mental health deteriorate while she gained 35 pounds.

She hit rock bottom in the 2018 national championship where she lost her first fight. She wouldn’t box again for more than three years.

“It was a lot of mental stuff. I just needed a break,” Gonzalez said. “I used to be the type of person that used to think that mental stuff was, like, weak. Until it happened to me.”

Gonzalez dealt with anxiety attacks, so she started seeing a therapist and keeping a journal. Slowly she began to emerge from what she calls “a very dark time in my life.”

“I’ve grown so much mentally,” she said. “I feel like I’ve been through the worst already. Any little setback that I have now, it’s like I’ve learned from that and it’s easier for me to push it to the side and keep moving forward.

“Instead of staying in that dark hole where I’m just feeling sorry for myself, now I’m like ‘OK, this bad thing happened but how can I make it positive?’ Control what you can control, F what you can’t.”

Jajaira Gonzalez trains with her father, Jose “Chuy” Gonzalez, at the CAPE Fitness gym in La Verne.

(Jill Connelly / For The Times)

That mindset helped push Gonzalez, 27, to a bronze medal at 60 kilograms (132 pounds) at last fall’s Pan American Games. She had started her comeback at 63.5 kilograms (140 pounds) but returned to her old weight after finishing ninth at the 2022 world championships as a super lightweight.

Gonzalez’s father, Jose, was a fighter in his native Mexico, although he didn’t push his children into the sport. But when his two eldest sons fell in love with boxing and asked their father to train them, he chose to make it a family affair, inviting Jajaira to tag along on the trips to the gym.

Now Gonzalez’s family will be following her to Paris, where she hopes to become the first American to medal in the women’s lightweight division. Just stepping into the ring, however, will qualify as a victory given what she has been through.

“I never thought I wouldn’t be boxing again. Boxing’s all I’ve known since I was 8 years old,” she said. “This is my life. This is what I love to do.

“Now that I think about it, now that I look back, I do feel like maybe I was too young. Now that I’m older, I’m more mature. Everything I went through, I feel like it kind of prepared me and I feel like this is my moment now.”

Harvey, who will compete at 57 kilograms (127 pounds) in Paris, was pushed into boxing by Daryl Davis, a former football coach who thought Harvey was too small for the gridiron but knew he was pretty good at fighting.

“He knew that I got into a lot of fights growing up,” Harvey said. “He and my parents grew up together in the same neighborhood, went to the same high school. So when I would get in trouble in school for fighting, he [knew].

“Once he started getting to coach in boxing, he wanted to transfer me over.”

Jahmal Harvey celebrates after defeating Cuba's Saidel Horta in the men's 57-kilogram final at the Pan American Games.

That proved to be a pretty good decision since Harvey, who grew up just outside Washington, won his first national Junior Olympics title at 13. Five years later he became the first American male to win a title at the elite world championships since 2007, beating defending world champion Mirazizbek Mirzakhalilov of Uzbekistan in the second round before dispatching Olympians Samuel Kistohurry of France and Serik Temirzhanov of Kazakhstan.

He followed that with a gold medal in the Pan American Games last fall and now Harvey, 21, is considered by many to be the best amateur boxer in the U.S. He’s certainly the best hope to win a medal, although Olympic teammates Joshua Edwards (super heavyweight) and Roscoe Hill (flyweight) have both medaled in international competition and are good bets to make the podium in Paris.

One of the first things Davis taught Harvey when they began working together was that he was safer being punched in the ring than he was being hit on the football field. It wasn’t a lesson the youngster immediately appreciated.

“I didn’t think nothing of boxing. I was always football,” Harvey said.

But he weighed about 85 pounds when he entered high school, which caused him to reconsider.

“I just weighed my options,” he said. “I was like yeah, I really love football. But I’m a realistic person and I know that I can make it way further in boxing than I could in football.

“I just knew boxing would be my sport.”

Yet for all his success, Harvey said his path to Paris was paved with a three-bout losing streak that started six months after his world championship win.

“It was important for me to lose so that I could work on the aspects of my game that I lacked,” said Harvey, who is 59-7 in his career. “And it wasn’t really anything inside the ring. It was everything outside the ring. Being away from family, mentally that was draining. Training all the time.

“I got a better diet, and then I started recovering better so my body could perform.”

As Harvey grew, he began to cut weight for the first time. So he experimented with a vegetarian diet. but that left him with low energy. Eventually he added fish and found a combination that worked.

“I had to learn what foods to eat and how to get the right nutrition,” he said.

Jahmal Harvey, left, throws a punch during a match against Brazil's Luiz Do Nascimento at the Pan American Games in October.

He also sought more balance between his life inside and outside the ring.

“It’s very important to not let [boxing] run your life,” he said. “I just let it be fun, let it come to me naturally. I put in a lot of work in the gym, so I know that OK, I can still go out, watch a movie, hang with friends.

“The gold medal, definitely that’s what I’m working to achieve. But I’m not stressing about the gold medal. I know it’s going to come to me if I put the work in. I’m just so proud of myself for even making it there.”

And if he becomes the second American male to win a boxing gold this century after Andre Ward earned one in 2004, would he follow Ward into the pro ring and cash in on all that work?

“If I win the gold medal, I might want to come back and become a two-time gold medalist,” he said.

That would be an even bigger achievement. The Americans haven’t had a man do that since 1904.

Sports

Jessica Pegula’s commitment to hard work every day has turned her into a leader

Published

30 minutes ago

March 11, 2026

Press Room

Jessica Pegula’s commitment to hard work every day has turned her into a leader

INDIAN WELLS — Jessica Pegula never needed tennis.

She simply kept showing up for it anyway, through the long and often anonymous slog of the professional tour.

Now 32 and the oldest player in the top 10, Pegula is having her best season start yet.

The fifth-ranked American reached the Australian Open semifinals for the first time in January, falling to eventual champion Elena Rybakina. She followed that by capturing the Dubai 1000-level tournament, just a rung below the majors.

She is 15-2 so far in 2026, tied with Victoria Mboko in match wins and second only to Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina (17-3), who she defeated 6-2, 6-4 in the Dubai final.

Pegula is guaranteed to emerge from this week’s BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells as the top-ranked American, overtaking No. 4 Coco Gauff, if she reaches the final.

Jessica Pegula kisses the Dubai trophy after defeating Elina Svitolina in the finals on Feb. 21.

(Altaf Qadri / Associated Press)

First, she will have to get past No. 12-seed Belinda Bencic of Switzerland, her fourth-round opponent on Wednesday. Bencic has not dropped a set in four previous meetings with Pegula.

“That will be a challenge for me,” said the characteristically even-keeled Pegula after defeating former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko in the third round on Monday.

A late bloomer, Pegula has taken the long road.

She failed to qualify for Grand Slam main draws in 12 of 14 attempts from 2011 to 2018, and didn’t reach the third round at a major until the 2020 U.S. Open at age 26. All three of her Grand Slam semifinal runs — along with her 2024 U.S. Open final — have come after she turned 30.

Pegula said this week that her patience and persistence stem from “always being a little more mature for my age even when I was younger.”

“I think as I’ve gotten older, your perspective changes as well,” she added.

Pegula, whose parents are principal owners of the NFL’s Buffalo Bills and the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres, acknowledges that her wealthy family background can cut two ways.

Financial security offers freedom to push through the sport’s early years on tour, when results are uncertain and the grind is relentless. That same cushion might make it easier to walk away if the climb becomes too frustrating.

Jessica Pegula plays a backhand against Donna Vekic during their match at the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells.

Pegula says her motivation to pursue tennis came well before her family’s fortune grew.

“I’ve been wanting to be a professional tennis player and No. 1 in the world since I was like 7,” she said in a small interview room after beating Ostapenko this week.

“It’s a privilege, but at the same time I don’t want to do myself a disservice of not taking the opportunity as well,” she explained. “I’ve always looked at it that way.”

In the last few seasons, that maturity on the court has dovetailed with a growing leadership role off it.

Pegula has served for years on the WTA Player Council and was recently tapped to chair the tour’s new Tour Architecture Council, a working group tasked with examining the increasingly demanding schedule and structural pressures players say have intensified in recent seasons. The panel is expected to explore changes that could reshape the calendar and player workload in coming years.

Pegula said she hadn’t put up her hand to be involved but agreed after several players approached her to take the lead role — though she declined to say who they were.

“I think maybe as you mature … you realize how important it is to give back to the sport,” she said last week.

Life has also provided grounding and a wider lens.

Pegula’s mother, Kim, suffered a serious cardiac arrest in 2022, a situation she discussed in detail in a moving 2023 essay for “The Players’ Tribune.”

The Buffalo native and Florida resident also married businessman Taylor Gahagen in 2021. Gahagen helps “holds down the fort” at home with the couple’s dogs and travels with her when possible. He is with her in Indian Wells.

“I have an amazing support system,” Pegula says.

Despite winning 10 WTA singles titles, achieving a career singles high of No. 3 in 2022 and the No. 1 doubles ranking, Pegula’s low-key demeanor means she flies a bit under the radar.

She’s not one for fashion statements, outlandish antics or attention-seeking initiatives, her joint podcast with close friend Madison Keys notwithstanding.

Instead, Pegula tends to go about her business quietly, relying on a calm temperament and a methodical style that wears opponents down over time.

She gets the job done — the Tim Duncan of the women’s tour.

“She’s just all about lacing them up and competing between the lines, and then trying to be as big an asset as she can to her peers off the court,” says Mark Knowles, the former doubles standout who has shared coaching duties with Mark Merklein since early 2024.

“I think one of her great attributes is she’s very level-headed,” Knowles adds. “She doesn’t get too high, doesn’t get too low.”

Her tennis identity echoes her steadiness.

Instead of bludgeoning opponents with power, the 5-foot-7 Pegula beats them with savvy, steadiness and tactical variety. A careful student of the game, she studies matchups and patrols the court with a composed efficiency that incrementally drains big hitters and outmaneuvers most rivals long before the final score confirms it.

Keys calls that consistency her “superpower.”

“She doesn’t lose matches that she shouldn’t lose,” the 2025 Australian Open champion said this week.

Because of injuries in the early part of her career, Knowles says Pegula might have less wear-and-tear than other players her age. And he and her team have prioritized rest and recovery, which included the decision to skip the tournament in Doha last month following her tiring Australian Open run.

On brand, there was no panic in Pegula after dropping the first set in her two matches so far at Indian Wells. As she’s done all season, she steadied herself to earn three-set wins.

Bucket-list goals remain, however. Chiefly, capturing a Grand Slam title.

Jessica Pegula returns a shot to Jelena Ostapenko during the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells on Monday.

Pegula jokes that she briefly interrupted a run of American female success when she fell in the 2024 U.S. Open final to No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka. But seeing close friend and teenage phenom Keys capture her major in Melbourne last year — after many wondered if her window had passed — hit closer to home.

“I think Madison winning Australia just motivated me even more,” Pegula says.

Although Pegula believes she is among the best hardcourt players in women’s tennis, that confidence hasn’t translated into success in the California desert. She has reached the quarterfinals just once in 10 previous appearances in Indian Wells.

“Why not try and add that one to the resume?” says Knowles, noting that she had never won the title in Dubai until last month. “She’s playing still at a very high level.”

Pegula says the key to keeping things fresh is maintaining her love of the game by continuing to improve and experiment with new ideas, a process that keeps her engaged mentally and eager to compete.

“I’m not afraid to kind of take that risk of changing and working on different things,” she says, “which just keeps my mind working and problem solving.”

For a player who never needed tennis, she remains determined to see how much more it can give her.

Sports

Miami Heat star Bam Adebayo makes NBA history with 83-point game

Published

12 hours ago

March 11, 2026

Press Room

Miami Heat star Bam Adebayo makes NBA history with 83-point game

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Miami Heat star Bam Adebayo made NBA history on Tuesday night.

Adebayo scored 83 points, all while setting league marks for free throws made and attempted in a game for the Miami Heat in a 150-129 win over the Washington Wizards. It is the second-highest scoring game for a player ever, only to Wilt Chamberlain’s famed 100-point game.

“An absolutely surreal night,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra told reporters after the game.

Adebayo started with a 31-point first quarter. He was up to 43 at halftime, 62 by the end of the third quarter. And then came the fourth, when the milestones kept falling despite facing double-, triple- and what once appeared to be a quadruple-team from a Wizards defense that kept sending him to the foul line.

He finished 20 of 43 from the field, 36 of 43 from the foul line, 7 for 22 from 3-point range.

After the game, he was seen in tears while he hugged his mother, Marilyn Blount, before leaving the floor after the game.

“Welp won’t have the highest career high in the house anymore,” Adebayo’s girlfriend, four-time WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson, wrote on social media, “but at least it gives me something to go after.”

MAGIC’S ANTHONY BLACK MAKES INCREDIBLE DUNK OVER FOUR DEFENDERS IN HISTORIC NBA GAME

Bam Adebayo #13 of the Miami Heat celebrates during the fourth quarter of the game against the Washington Wizards at Kaseya Center on March 10, 2026, in Miami, Florida. (Megan Briggs/Getty Images)

The NBA’s previous best this season was 56, by Nikola Jokic for Denver against Minnesota on Christmas night. The last player to have 62 points through three quarters: one of Adebayo’s basketball heroes, Kobe Bryant, who had exactly that many through three quarters for the Los Angeles Lakers against Dallas on Dec. 20, 2005.

He wound up passing Bryant for single-game scoring as well. Bryant’s career-best was 81 — a game that was the second-best on the NBA scoring list for two decades.

Adebayo scored 31 points in the opening quarter against the Wizards, breaking the Heat record for points in any quarter — and tying the team record for points in a first half before the second quarter even started.

He finished the first half with 43 points, a team record for any half and two points better than his previous career high — for a full game, that is — of 41, set Jan. 23, 2021, against Brooklyn.

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Adebayo’s season high entering Tuesday was 32. He matched that with a free throw with 5:53 left in the second quarter, breaking the Heat first-half scoring record.

Adebayo’s 43-point first half was the NBA’s second-best in at least the last 30 seasons — going back to the start of the digital play-by-play era that began in the 1996-97 season.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Jackson Thompson is a sports reporter for Fox News Digital covering critical political and cultural issues in sports, with an investigative lens. Jackson’s reporting has been cited in federal government actions related to the enforcement of Title IX, and in legacy media outlets including The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Associated Press and ESPN.com.

Sports

Kings lose in overtime to the Boston Bruins

Published

13 hours ago

March 11, 2026

Press Room

Kings lose in overtime to the Boston Bruins

BOSTON — Charlie McAvoy scored 39 seconds into overtime and Jeremy Swayman stopped 14 shots on Tuesday night to earn the Boston Bruins their 13th straight victory at home, 2-1 over the Kings.

Mason Lohrei scored midway through the third period to break a scoreless tie. But the Kings tied it five minutes later when Drew Doughty’s shot from the blue line deflected off the heel of Bruins forward Elias Lindholm and into the net.

It was the seventh straight time the teams had gone to overtime in Boston.

In the overtime, Mark Kastelic blocked a shot in the defensive zone and made a long pass to David Pastrnak, who waited for McAvoy to come into the zone. The Bruins’ defenseman and U.S. Olympian, who went to the locker room at the end of the second period after taking a puck off his mouth, skated in on Darcy Kuemper and went to his backhand for the winner.

Kuemper stopped 21 shots for the Kings, who entered the night one point out of the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference. The victory kept Boston in possession of the East’s second wild-card spot.

Swayman tied his career high with his 25th win of the season. The Bruins haven’t lost at the TD Garden since before Christmas.

After the game, Kings forward and future Hall of Famer Anze Kopitar stayed on the ice to shake hands with the Bruins after what is expected to be his last game in Boston.