Jajaira Gonzalez is USA Boxing’s representative in the 60kg division at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. She spoke to BoxingScene about the competition that could yet define her career.
BoxingScene: What’s this moment like in your life, preparing to be an Olympian?
Gonzalez: Kind of surreal – like I still don’t feel like it’s real. But I feel like I’m training harder than usual. But I definitely feel very blessed. Just to be able to kind of perfect everything leading up to the games. I’m living like a little bit stress-free now because now I can just fix everything instead of worrying like, “Oh, I still gotta qualify”.
BS: How do you stay focused and not slack off?
Gonzalez: Honestly, I just feel like this is like a once-in-a-lifetime thing. Not a lot of people can say they’re Olympians, or they’re going to the Games. So I kind of just think about it. I don’t want to take this for granted – start slacking off. Just because I’m an Olympian doesn’t mean I have to let my foot off the gas; I need to go harder than anything; I feel like that keeps me motivated. That keeps me grounded to continue to push myself more than what I already was doing. Before I qualified, okay? Being an Olympian is not the goal, so I’m only like halfway there to my ultimate goal – which is getting an Olympic gold medal.
BS: How do you feel about being labeled as the sister to your brothers, the professional fighters Joet and Jousce?
Gonzalez: People are gonna say what they say. At first, it kind of did bother me because I was just kind of thinking more, I’m my own person. My work is my work. I don’t like to be attached to anything that – like things that happened in my past that I was kind of judged for. I like to just think I only really got myself here. My dad did help me along the way. Some of my brothers were encouraging me and supportive and stuff like that. But at the end of the day, like everything that I had to go through, to come to here – like it was all me, so I don’t like being attached. I’m my own person. My story is my story. My accomplishments are my accomplishments. I don’t know – I don’t know why, it just kind of triggers me a little bit.
BS: How hard was your past?
Gonzalez: It was really hard. I definitely was in a very dark place in my life at one point where I just wanted to give up everything like all together. But it was mainly me thinking about how I couldn’t do that to my parents. I can’t just quit – I was made to be something big in life. So that’s really what kind of started pushing me to like continue to box. I’m grateful for everything that I had to go through because I feel like it made me grow as a person and it made me learn a lot as well. So now if there is like a little rough patch along the way, I think it’s easier for me to recognize it as what it is – like just something in the moment and not let it drag me down for years like they used to before.
BS: So when and why did you come back to boxing?
Gonzalez: I came back to boxing in 2021. I had moved back home from Virginia back with my parents in California. Started training with my dad and we went to the nationals in December of 2021. I got back on the [USA Boxing] team and really I just had missed boxing. I was working a regular job in Virginia. I was just sitting there bored one day and I was scrolling through Instagram.
I was seeing that USA Boxing was in Spain. I’ve always wanted to go to Spain and I was just looking at some of the females that were there at the camp, and they were going to compete and I was like, ‘I beat her before, and I beat her before – I should be there. I should be traveling the world doing what I love, and I’m sitting here working a regular job’. That motivated me to get up; start getting back in shape. Because I was big. I was like 30-35lbs heavier than what I am now. So I just started going into the gym, getting healthy, changing my eating habits and a lot of other bad habits that I had picked up.
BS: What job did you have?
Gonzalez: I was a kickboxing instructor. Not even regular boxing kickboxing. It was just like the easiest job to get. I’ve never had any job experience. My only job has always been to box. So it was the quickest and easiest thing I could get.
BS: How involved are your family in your life currently?
Gonzalez: They’re very involved. They’re always checking up on me; they know how I get like when I’m in camps and stuff. So we will sometimes go like a few days without speaking but then we always just catch up.
BS: What is mission accomplished in boxing?
Gonzalez: I think mission accomplished for me in boxing, first it would start off with the gold medal, but then even after that, I feel like for some reason – I just feel like I still wouldn’t be fully satisfied with boxing. Being an Olympic gold medalist, I might think to myself, like, ‘Okay, I got one, but can I get two?’ I think my ultimate goal personally is I want to retire my parents, and just be able to continue to train and just be and show that I’m the best in the world and my way. Whatever I decide to do, just make sure that my family is straight.
BS: Which brother did you have a sparring rivalry with?
Gonzalez: My second oldest brother Jousce [Gonzalez]. Jousce used to beat me up – like, he would always give me like bloody noses. I used to be so mad. My oldest brother – he would kind of beat me up, too, but he would take some power off of his punches. My second oldest brother, he did not care. He would beat me up, and I would be over there crying, I’m bleeding. He would just be like, ‘Well keep your hands up or just get better’. Yeah, he used to piss me off growing up for sure.
BS: Do you understand your place in history and USA Boxing?
Gonzalez: Yes, and that wasn’t until really recently. It didn’t really feel real. But then I think once I did more interviews and people wanted to talk to me wanting to know my story. I think that’s when it started to hit me that I really just did that. I’m super excited for Paris. I just can’t wait to go and compete and I’m excited. I’m not even nervous. People always ask me like, are you nervous? Like, No, I never get nervous. I know it’s the Olympics. It’s huge, but I still am going to treat it like any other fight.
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