Hell’s Kitchen Boxing Champ On Her Way to Rio Olympic Qualifiers
(DNAINFO) Rosa Goldensohn — The country’s top-ranked amateur female boxer came one step closer to going the distance to Rio this weekend.
Christina Cruz, 32, qualified for the Olympic Trials Saturday, one of eight women in the country to do so, she told DNAinfo.
“In 2012, I fell short, so now I’m just trying to come back and get that spot on the team,” she said.
The trials are set for the last weekend of October.
Cruz has been training at Team USA’s Olympic training center in Colorado Springs for the last year, but the Ninth Avenue native got her pugnacity growing up in Hell’s Kitchen.
“I guess I’m a city kid, I grew up in the city,” Cruz said. “Wasn’t no suburban place. I grew up with a bunch of boys around me and two brothers so I always had to be tough.”