Alexis Lavarine is a tremendous basketball player. In fact, she recently signed a full scholarship to attend Louisiana College this fall. "I'm really excited to start a new chapter," Lavarine said. The high school student is truly turning the page because basketball wasn’t her first love. Boxing was. "I've always wanted to be in the Olympics," Lavarine said.After winning six national championships and three world titles in her age division, she was invited to move to Colorado to work with Team USA boxing. While men's boxing has been an Olympic medal sport since 1904, women's boxing is one of the newer events — it became a medal sport at the London games in 2012."I just feel like it's an honor to wear these three letters on my jersey," Lavarine said.Once a strong candidate to represent her country and go for gold at the Tokyo games, Lavarine has been knocked out of Olympic consideration due to a rule change. Professional — not just amateur — boxers can now compete in the Olympics, resulting in the minimum age of fighters being raised from 17 to 19 – so Lavarine isn't old enough for the games this summer. "I just remember like feeling devastated…that all my hard work, it was just like, being taken away from me," she said.That news, coupled with the pandemic, resulted in the last 12 months being hard for Lavarine. "I kind of struggled with that, but I used basketball to kind of pick me up and I started doing basketball full time and boxing part-time," she said.So now it's left-handed layups, instead of left-handed hooks — but Lavarine says a return to the boxing ring is possible. "You never know what the future holds," she said. "I feel like I should keep training and maybe I'll go pro after college. I'll still be young when I graduate so that's still an option for me."
Alexis Lavarine is a tremendous basketball player.
In fact, she recently signed a full scholarship to attend Louisiana College this fall.
"I'm really excited to start a new chapter," Lavarine said.
The high school student is truly turning the page because basketball wasn’t her first love.
Boxing was.
"I've always wanted to be in the Olympics," Lavarine said.
After winning six national championships and three world titles in her age division, she was invited to move to Colorado to work with Team USA boxing.
While men's boxing has been an Olympic medal sport since 1904, women's boxing is one of the newer events — it became a medal sport at the London games in 2012.
"I just feel like it's an honor to wear these three letters on my jersey," Lavarine said.
Once a strong candidate to represent her country and go for gold at the Tokyo games, Lavarine has been knocked out of Olympic consideration due to a rule change.
Professional — not just amateur — boxers can now compete in the Olympics, resulting in the minimum age of fighters being raised from 17 to 19 – so Lavarine isn't old enough for the games this summer.
"I just remember like feeling devastated…that all my hard work, it was just like, being taken away from me," she said.
That news, coupled with the pandemic, resulted in the last 12 months being hard for Lavarine.
"I kind of struggled with that, but I used basketball to kind of pick me up and I started doing basketball full time and boxing part-time," she said.
So now it's left-handed layups, instead of left-handed hooks — but Lavarine says a return to the boxing ring is possible.
"You never know what the future holds," she said. "I feel like I should keep training and maybe I'll go pro after college. I'll still be young when I graduate so that's still an option for me."
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