Naomi Melissa Graham is an American

middleweight Middleweight is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing Professional In professional boxing, the middleweight division is contested above and up to . Early boxing history is less than exact, but the middleweight designation seems to have be ...

boxer Boxer most commonly refers to: * Boxer (boxing), a competitor in the sport of boxing *Boxer (dog), a breed of dog Boxer or boxers may also refer to: Animal kingdom * Boxer crab * Boxer shrimp, a small group of decapod crustaceans * Boxer snipe ee ...

. She is a staff sergeant and ammunition specialist in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

. Graham is the first female active duty service member to fight for the U.S. at the Olympics.

Life

Graham was brought up in

Fayetteville, North Carolina Fayetteville () is a city in and the county seat of Cumberland County, North Carolina, United States. It is best known as the home of Fort Bragg, a major U.S. Army installation northwest of the city. Fayetteville has received the All-America C ...

where she was the youngest of six children. A sister, Rachel, who was six years older than her took up professional boxing, but Naomi did not, as her mother objected. When she was 21, she was made homeless by her mother. In 2012, she was inspired by seeing women like

Nicola Adams Nicola Virginia Adams (born 26 October 1982) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 2017 to 2019. She retired with an undefeated record and held the WBO female flyweight title in 2019. As an amateur, she became the first fe ...

competing in the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

. She joined the army in 2013 and two years later she joined the Army's World Class Athlete Program. In 2019, Graham won silver at the

Pan American Games The Pan American Games (also known colloquially as the Pan Am Games) is a continental multi-sport event in the Americas featuring summer sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The competition is held ...

, which was later upgraded to gold due to her opponent's in the final disqualification for doping. Naomi became the first female active duty service member to compete for the U.S. at the Olympics. She was in Tokyo for the postponed

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

in 2021.

References

1989 births Living people American military Olympians American women boxers Boxers at the 2019 Pan American Games Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States Pan American Games medalists in boxing Medalists at the 2019 Pan American Games AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships medalists Boxers from North Carolina Sportspeople from Fayetteville, North Carolina United States Army non-commissioned officers Boxers at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic boxers for the United States 21st-century American women {{US-boxing-bio-stub