Mary Spencer

Mary Spencer is one of Canada’s premier boxing champions, with eight national titles, five Pan-American titles, and three world titles.

Spencer was born December 12, 1984,in Wiarton, Ontario, as the fourth of five children and as an Ojibwe from the Cape Croker First Nation. After moving multiple times, her family settled in Windsor, where she quickly became involved in various sports, but focused on boxing.

In 2002, at age 17, Spencer began boxing at the Windsor Amateur Boxing Club, and in a few months began training under three-time Olympic coach Charlie Stewart. Five months later, she won her amateur debut match, and in 2003 became Ontario’s 66kg champion; in 2004, only 18 months after taking up the sport, Spencer won the first of many Canadian championships in the 66kg weight class.[1]

From 2004 to 2005, Spencer competed both nationally and internationally, resulting in her first Pan-American championship in Argentina, her first world championship in Russia, two straight undefeated seasons, and a massive boost to her reputation as one of the finest boxers in the world.[2]From 2006 to 2007, she suffered international losses but won many medals at both national and international championships. In 2008, Spencer dominated the competition: she won her fifth Canadian title and her fourth Pan-American title, claimed a second title from the World Championships, and was internationally undefeated, culminating in being named Canadian Boxer of the Year for the fourth time.[3]

In 2009, the Amateur International Boxing Association (AIBA) implemented new weight divisions for female boxers, causing Spencer to drop to the new 64kg weight class, but she was still able to win the Canadian championship in this new division. However, the new Olympic weight divisions announced the same year only had three weight classes for female boxers (51kg, 60kg, and 75kg), rather than the traditional eight; Spencer took up the challenge of training for the 75kg division.[4]Her hard work paid off, as she came in second in the 75kg class at the 2010 Canadian Championships. During internationalcompetition, she won three gold medals. 

Spencer won the Canadian title along with another world championship title in Barbados in 2011. She began training for the Pan-American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico by preparing in Costa Rica in order to become adjusted to the altitude; her efforts were fruitful, as she took the first women’s boxing gold medal at the event and was also named Canada’s flag bearer during closing ceremonies.[5]Spencer secured a spot on the national team for the 2012 Olympics; the 2013 Prospector Films documentary Last Woman Standingdetailed her battle with friend Ariane Fortin to secure a spot on the Olympic team.[6]

Spencer lost her first fight at the world championship tournament, failing to qualify for the Olympics, but a wild card berth pushed her through to her 2012 Summer Olympics debut in London, England. She was a favouritefor a medal but had an unexpected 17-14 loss to Chinese boxer Li Jinzi in the quarter-finals, which many attributed to fatigue and the pressures of media attention.[7]Despite the loss, Spencer’s brush with the Olympics made her a Canadian celebrity as a women’s boxing spokesperson and as a model for the cosmetic company CoverGirl. Spencer described her work with CoverGirl as an opportunity to break the stereotypes about female boxers, both inside and outside the ring.[8]

Spencer began training in 2013 with a new coach, former professional boxer Kara Ro, for the 2015 Pan-American Games in Toronto and for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio De Janeiro.

Outside of boxing, Spencer holds multiple humanitarian positions to aid youth athletes. She is a member of Motivate Canada’s GEN 7 Aboriginal role model initiative, where she develops sport, physical activity, and empowerment programming for Ontario First Nations communities, and in 2013, she became one of six elite athlete mentors with the CIBC Team Next program that provides funding and mentorship to young Olympic hopefuls.[9]

Researched and written by Devon Fraser, University of Windsor student.