AIRWAY HEIGHTS, Wash. (AP) — When the first female boxers showed up at Al Mitchell’s gym in northern Michigan several years ago, the U.S. Olympic Education Center’s head coach was not impressed. He had no interest in teaching women how to fight.
Basheer Abdullah had the same reaction to the first women who crossed the sport’s invisible line and entered his Army gyms. Tom Mustin didn’t even see women in his Tacoma Boxing Club for years, figuring his coaching style was just too tough for them.
The coaches who led three of the last four Olympic men’s boxing teams say time and talent changed their minds.
They’re all coaching fighters at the first U.S. Olympic women’s boxing team trials this week, hoping their international experience can push the American women into the London Games.
