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2825 Redefining AmericaThe thing Kayla resents most is how her former best friend has managed to shake her confidence in her gym, which is to say her home. Just a little. Just enough. She feels like she%u2019s seeing her family through the eyes of an outsider for the first time. All the small things she never paid much attention to before%u2014now they%u2019re all she notices. Coach%u2019s habit of running late; the haphazard equipment (good luck finding two dumbbells that match); his mercurial moods. One day he waves his fighters off, sends them away to work the heavy bags on their own. Sometimes you have to do for yourselves, he tells them, like they%u2019re a bunch of needy children. Another he spends an hour breaking down the jab in glorious detail. One 5 day she can%u2019t tie her shoes right; another she%u2019s the greatest thing this gym has ever seen. On fight dates, Coach is like one of those performers who practically has to be carried to the venue only to transform into an entirely different person the moment he steps onstage. She is certain that the talks he delivered before her bouts did nothing less than alter the substance of her soul. The way he left her feeling so understood, so believed-in.Two days before the fight, Kayla drives over to the gym to shadowbox in front of the mirrors, work her head movement with the slip bag. Then she sits ringside and watches Coach oversee two guys sparring. One is a newbie with a big mouth, the other a veteran who keeps landing crisp, effortless punches, driving the newbie into a pinched, sweaty silence. One thing she has always loved about boxing is the transparency, the way five In this action shot from the lightweight final at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Kellie Anne Harrington punches Beatriz Ferreira. Harrington defeated Ferreira, winning gold.What strengths%u2014physical or mental%u2014do these women convey that reflect what Kayla gains from her training and experience fighting?Buda Mendes/Getty ImagesWhat do Kayla%u2019s feelings about her boxing gym and the people who work and train there reveal about her life away from the gym?22Copyright %u00a9 Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. Distributed by Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. For review purposes only. Not for redistribution.