Champion Terry Gordini: "Boxing has taught me how to overcome pain."

Boxing is one of those sports that makes you go a little against nature, that is, it forces you to face the awareness, not to mention the certainty, that you might face pain, the first real difficulty you have to face, combining heart and mind. You learn from boxing at any age, you learn that you can find yourself against the ropes in the ring as in life, and that it's never over until the bell rings.

The ring is a school for facing daily challenges. Boxing teaches you to get up after every fall, to manage fear, even that of great champions like multi-medal-winning Terry Gordini, a native of Ravenna, ambassador and advisor to the Italian Boxing Federation. Gordini met this morning with students from the Mario Paglietti Sports and Science High School in Porto Torres . The "Meeting with the Champion" initiative is part of the "Learning by Boxing" project, developed by the institute in collaboration with the Alberto Mura Boxing Club through sports coach Isidoro Tinteri, sports association president Luciano Mura, and sports director Tonino Solinas. Also in attendance were school principal Daniele Taras and sports committee president Antonello Cabitta. Ambassador Terry Gordini is an Italian amateur boxer (flyweight/54 kg) with a long career with the Italian national team (2005-2016), best known for winning the silver medal at the 2012 AIBA World Championships. She is a multiple Italian champion – four-time gold medalist – and captain of the Italian elite national team. Her total record includes 115 fights, with 84 wins, 22 losses, and 8 draws. For Terry Gordini , boxing is a powerful metaphor for life that teaches discipline, resilience, and emotional control, but above all, sacrifice.

"This is a form of self-love," she says, "to discover and strengthen one's talent, which helps one understand one's self-esteem." Boxing taught the champion "that fatigue doesn't exist, a sort of human or demonic invention to give up on one's dreams, so that tiredness is simply a lack of motivation: we are masters of our own destiny and guardians of our own soul." Her true mentor was her father Meo, but passion, grit, and dedication were elements of her strength. Years of satisfaction in which she managed to fight against discrimination against women.

"Women's boxing became legal in Italy in 2001, and even today parity hasn't been achieved, but I was one of the first women to win in boxing. Boxing taught me to confront myself, my fears, my limits, but then it taught me to face them, to overcome them with energy and strength."