Mary Spencer stands at the end of a dark tunnel. Cheers from the crowd sound like thunder. She closes her eyes, letting the noise pour over her. Her fingers tingle inside her boxing gloves.
This is the London 2012 Olympic Games and the crowd is going wild for good reason. Today is Round 1of the first women’s Olympic boxing competition … ever.
Respect has been a long time coming for both Mary and her sport.
Mary is from the Cape Croker First Nations Reserve and grew up in Windsor, Ont.
Her family didn’t have a lot of money. She wasn’t always the best-behaved kid. She even surprisingly failed gym class.
But her life changed the first time she stepped into a boxing ring.
“I saw what I was capable of doing,” said Mary. “It takes a lot of hard work to make it as an Olympian.”
She knows that as she steps into the ring to battle for Olympic gold, she is showing the kids back home what they can do.
“I do a lot of work with kids at Cape Croker and in Windsor,” said Mary. “I need to win so they will know that a regular person like me — and them — can do something special with confidence and hard work.”
Through hard work, she has earned her way to the top of the women’s boxing world. In fact, Mary has been at the top of her sport for years.
She has won three world titles and more than 100 bouts. During all that time, boxing was the only sport in the Olympic Games in which women couldn’t compete.
“I’d hoped the International Olympic Committee would add women’s boxing in 2008. They didn’t, and that was very hard to take,” said Mary. “But I just had to regroup and hope for 2012,” said Mary.
Not being in the Olympic Games robbed the sport of women’s boxing from any chance of gaining a high profile. There are sports fans who don’t take her sport seriously. Maybe they don’t like the idea of women fighting with their fists.
“It was hard to gain respect when women’s boxing wasn’t an Olympic sport,” said Mary. “A lot of people still don’t realize how competitive it is.”
That changed two years ago when the International Olympic Committee announced women boxers would compete in the London 2012 Olympic Games.
But the news was not all positive as only three weight classes would be included and Mary didn’t make any of them. She stayed positive, though, and moved up a weight class to box heavier athletes. In comparing the wight classes, the men box in 10 weight classes.
Mary has trained very hard for this moment. Even her competitors respect how hard she practices. She wants to win and knows what it will take.
The sport of boxing is not easy and can be challenging. Boxers begin each bout by tapping gloves and Mary says they often tap gloves during the bout as well, “to say good job”.
“There is a lot of respect among boxers,” she says. “We all know that it takes a lot of courage to get in there in the first place. The respect we have for each other is seen after the match. In my 10 years of boxing, I have never witnessed a conflict between boxers outside of the ring.”
The noise continues to rise as Mary makes her way into the ring. She spies her opponent. Now she has to get ready to compete at the highest level.
Millions of people will be watching, but Mary knows she’s ready. After years of waiting and fighting for respect, it is about to arrive … win or lose.
Connecting: Respect Placemats
Teacher asks the whole class to help define respect and self-respect. Clarify student definitions to include key ideas such as honouring one another, or treating all people with dignity. Move students into six small working groups. Write one of the following questions on six large sheets of paper (flip charts / Bristol boards):
- What does respect look like?
- What does respecting others sound like (how do you see and act around them)?
- What does it feel like when you are being respected (how are you treated and how do others act around you)?
- What does it feel like when you are respecting someone else?
- What does respecting me look like?
- What does respecting my world look like?
- Students have three minutes with their group to write or sketch key ideas for each question.
- On the teacher’s signal, pass all the sheets clockwise so that each group has a new question to respond to. Continue this until all groups have had a chance to work on each placemat.
- With their final placemat, students read the question to the class and choose one powerful idea to share from the page.
Note; A carousel activity, where the students move to a posted sheet on the wall, encourages more physical activity. Students are timed to quickly walk to the next ‘placemat”.
Processing: Role-Play an Interview
Ask the students to read the story silently on their own. In groups of two, students role play an interview with Mary Spencer. The interviewer asks the questions from the Connecting section, and Mary Spencer answers using ideas from the text. Students practice with their partners and present to the class.
Transforming: A Personal Brochure
Students make a tri-fold brochure that demonstrates how they will practice respect. In each third, students write and draw to show how they demonstrate respect.