FUCHS Virginia

Olympic qualifying results
She secured a spot for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo through the IOC Boxing Task Force [BTF] rankings. (teamusa.org, 12 May 2021)

General
OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE DISORDER
While undergoing treatment for anorexia at age 12, she was diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder [OCD]. "There are many different forms of OCD. I personally suffer from fear of contamination. I deal with my OCD from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to sleep at night. Boxing is the only thing that saved me from my OCD. Boxing is like therapy for me because it takes my mind out of that OCD world. I go into the gym and my main focus is on getting better at my job. I know that when we are sparring I'm getting other people's sweat and blood on me, but I don't think about that because my main focus is to get better, and to win the [Olympic] gold medal. If I didn't have boxing, I'm really scared of how my life would look. I hid my OCD for so long, but when I opened up about my condition, I've become more accepting of myself. And that's the message that I want to get out to people who struggle with any kind of mental health disorder." (olympics.com, 13 May 2021; Instagram profile, 22 May 2020)

COVID-19 IMPACT
The postponement of the 2020 Olympic Games due to the COVID-19 pandemic has provided her with additional time to work on her OCD. "One positive thing about the coronavirus for me is that the extra year might give me some more time to get a better hold of my OCD before I go to Tokyo to win the gold. It's funny as most people are kind of living in my world now. I go to the store and I see everybody disinfecting everything constantly. [But] my mind is playing tricks on me, because sometimes I think I may have been doing the right thing all this time, and now it's just coming to light in our society. So that's the only kind of twist now with my OCD, that the pandemic measures are possibly working against my therapy." (olympics.com, 13 May 2021)

TEAM CAPTAIN IN RIO
In 2015 she defeated Mary Kom on her way to winning the Rio 2016 Olympic test event. She ultimately missed out on a spot for the 2016 Olympic Games having failed to progress far enough at several qualification events in 2016, including the Americas Olympic Qualification Tournament and the world championships. She attributed the failure to qualify to looking too far ahead, which she believes her OCD contributed to, but she was still invited to travel to the 2016 Games to mentor other fighters as the US women's boxing team captain. "I was not focusing on the moment. And actually, that's what my OCD stems from. I'm always so focused and worried about how am I going to be clean enough, blah, blah, blah, instead of just focusing on enjoying the moment. That's the biggest thing I took from not getting to box at Rio." (olympics.com, 13 May 2021)

GINNY THE PIRATE
She has been nicknamed 'The Pirate' by her teammates. "I grew up on the water and I've always just been interested in the life of a pirate. Just sailing the waters and going from island to island, living a life of freedom on the water because I love the water. So when they named me captain of the Olympic team for 2016 Olympics, and I was warming up with the team, I would always just say things like, 'Okay, you guys are my crew, we're on a voyage, get the gold!' I would always give out pirate commands like 'Get on the port side, get on the starboard side', as they are nautical terms. We would do this thing where we jump in the air to stretch and I'd say 'Man overboard!' So it became my name in boxing, Ginny the Pirate, and it's just kind of stuck with me." (olympics.com, 13 May 2021)