Amelia Moore is a team USA women’s amateur boxer and a Maine native who graduated from Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School in South Paris in 2008. Now 32, Moore returned to her home in Colorado Springs in May from her most recent boxing match in Istanbul, Turkey. She’ll enjoy some rest and recovery time before she rejoins her team on Aug. 1 in Colorado Springs to participate in an All-Nations Training Camp and a boxing tournament involving competitors from at least seven countries.

Amelia Moore is a Maine native and team USA women’s amateur boxer who has traveled worldwide for her competition and earned a bronze medal at the Continental Championships in Guayaquil, Ecuador, in mid-March. Submitted photo

How did you become interested in boxing? The love for combat sports started when I first began to train and compete in martial arts at age 7. Bushido Karate, from Casco, held an afterschool program at Guy E. Rowe Elementary in Norway. Through this, I was introduced to competition in both sparring and kata. It most definitely ignited a fire and awareness in me. To advance in training I’d have to go to the main dojo in Casco; distance and cost made this difficult to continue, but I never stopped thinking about training and the people I met. My instructor and sensei, though I can’t remember her name, and Bushido owners and masters, Beth and John, inspired me. In my eyes they were real-life superheroes. I’d never met anyone like them before this.

Several years later at around the age of 16, about eight to 10 months after being granted an emancipation by the court, I found myself in a women’s self-defense intro kickboxing class in the Old Port in Portland. I was athletic and had a rough idea of grounding and stance, which the instructor picked up on quickly. Following the class walking out, the owner asked to speak with me, wanted to know my background. The walls had pictures of a female boxer he had trained. I believe animals recognize other animals. The fire in her eyes through these pictures spoke to me. His gym, low and behold, was primarily a dedicated boxing gym. He saw the potential in me, but again cost and distance made this impossible. I was a 16-year-old kid with two jobs, riding my bicycle all over Norway/South Paris . . . but the spark ignited and so began the pursuit. I wanted to know more, I wanted to find a way to do this, to train.

I would Google “Boxing” and “Boxing Gym in Maine” in the library at my high school. Reading the reviews, scanning the pictures over and over. Toward the end of my junior year in high school, in a regularly scheduled guidance meeting, I had voiced that I didn’t really think college was a possibility. College meant money, money I didn’t have. College was for the privileged. That wasn’t me. My aspirations were to enlist in the military. I just wanted to get out and honestly, I didn’t even know what “getting out” meant, but I knew it meant leaving and getting away from the challenges life had already placed on me. Yet, life has a funny way of placing the right people in your life if you’re only open enough to receive the message they have, small gifts from the universe. My guidance counselor, Mr. (Paul) Bickford, knowing I was a varsity track athlete who’d just made it to New England Indoor Track Championships, who worked two jobs and still maintained a fairly decent grade point average, all the while being for the most part my own support system . . . well, he knew I had other options, but that I didn’t know it. I walked out of the guidance office holding catalogs to the Army and Navy’s officer service academies, West Point and Annapolis.

Being a greenhorn, a person not raised in a military environment or family and with little to no knowledge of it, I knew zero amount of the officer pipeline. Again, with the Google searches back in the library. Fate had it that I stumbled upon a movie released the year prior called Annapolis. Starring James Franco, the movie was all about . . . boxing. Brigade boxing to be specific and the age-old legacy it held at Annapolis. Welp, I went down to the local library, rented the movie and it was the only convincing I needed. I’d seen G.I. Jane and now, thanks to our “Pineapple Express” friend, I knew without a doubt Navy had boxing, I liked the service dress whites better than the Army’s, and it was also a college opportunity that gave me a chance to serve in the military. All systems go, let’s do it.

Around this same time, I had purchased a vehicle. Life is so much easier when you have a set of wheels. Finally, I could test out all those Google searches for gyms. I found myself at Gamache Boxing Club located in the bottom of the Lewiston Armory. My first day there Joey Sr. put me through all the exercises from bag work, treadmill sprints, core circuit and even had the chance to move around with Joey Jr.’s nephew Ryan. Two rounds with Ryan, my jaw ached from being punched with it open. I walked away that day loving every minute. I was hooked, figuratively and literally.

Amelia Moore, left, is a team USA women’s amateur boxer who has traveled worldwide for her competition and recently received a bronze medal at the Continental Championships in Guayaquil, Ecuador in mid-March. Submitted photo.

Describe some of your boxing competitions within the past two to three years and their outcomes. Do you enjoy traveling as much as you do? Competitions are in full swing now as COVID restrictions are being lifted worldwide. As you can imagine, combat sports were very difficult and pretty much stopped due to the pandemic. This past December I competed at the USA Boxing National Championships, claiming my second national title. Prior to this, I hadn’t competed since February 2020 in Sofia, Bulgaria. In mid-March, I went down to Guayaquil, Ecuador, for Continental Championships, where I podiumed with a bronze medal. Returning from Ecuador was a quick 11-day turnaround before leaving for an acclimation training camp in Assis, Italy, where we got used to the time change and had top-level sparring with other nations prior to heading out to Istanbul, Turkey, for Women’s World Championships.

It’s been a whirlwind, but it feels incredible to be all in on this journey. Traveling while trying to get to fight weight has its own challenges and you never know what you’ll be faced with. Though I get to meet really awesome people, learn about new cultures and pick up on bits of new languages — I can ask “the bathroom, please” in at least five — try different authentic foods and punch people in the face all over the world. Not many can say that last bit and I love that about my life.

Now that you finally have a couple of months off from competing, how will you be spending your time? I’ve been training nonstop for the last nine months. I just got back from competition and being overseas only 13 days ago. These first two weeks off are really essential to recovery. I’ve pushed my body so hard, and now it’s time to rest with the same dedication, which has its own level of difficulty. To put it into perspective, I’m coming off of a 9-hour time change, a restricted weight management diet and a strict training schedule to now have zero structure . . . complete chaos. Can’t lie, I am finally figuring out how to be human again after nearly two weeks home. I’m telling you though, we’ve all heard the coined phrase “be kind to yourself.” You really have to. Not being critical of the post-competition weight fluctuation, being OK with not working out. And actually knowing that going for walks is completely an acceptable form of active recovery, sleeping in doesn’t mean you’re lazy and giving yourself the space to do nothing but maybe a few essential tasks as you build back to a new routine is OK. Life outside of competition stops when you’re away and it can feel like you’re being slingshot back into reality. Managing expectations of yourself and the demands on you are the only ways to integrate back without being overwhelmed.

On a less comically dark note, boxing is only one facet of me, it is not all of me, though it takes up most of my time. I’m excited to have an extended time away from the team, aka more than the usual 9 days, to recharge and give light to other facets of myself. Coming back at the perfect time to plant and plan to play in my garden, I started the seed flats before leaving for Italy acclimation camp. Sit outside and have morning coffee with my partner. Take the dogs on hikes. Have time to bake and cook foods with more flare than chicken, broccoli and rice. Go paddle boarding, play guitar, ride my motorcycle and whatever else piques my interest.

How do you prepare yourself mentally and physically for your boxing matches? Preparation comes from trusting the process and doing the work. It’s not always beautiful or linear. Some days you’re the nail and others the hammer. There is this unspoken misconception that people are born with whatever talent and walk into their success. Couldn’t be farther from the truth. Success in anything comes from focused constant consistency.

Leaning into the process is where I find my balance. Knowing I’ve cut no corners and put forth full effort in everything I do. Preparation and training doesn’t stop when I walk out of the gym. It’s a lifestyle. From the rest and time and space we give our minds and bodies to recover, the food we put into it, the company we keep. This balance is so key, especially as you near competition and training loads increase.
The process, itself, is also about a good support system and solid communication. Surrounding yourself with people who hold the same vision as you.

In a weight class sport, there’s a lot of times you find yourself alone in your thoughts putting in miles of roadwork or hours of cardio sessions. No matter how loud the music blares in your headphones, it’s always just you and yourself. Can’t escape that, so might as well get comfortable. Comfortable with pushing past the pain of exertion, pain of perceived exhaustion, comfortable working through your internal monologue, comfortable reviewing moments you fell short and then using your mind to find solutions on how to adjust to come back better the next day. Preparation is a lot of “being comfortable being uncomfortable.”

Every step through the process is another away from doubt. Step by step until it’s just you and your time to shine.

What’s the next big event for you and what kind of preparation will you do for it? USA Boxing will be holding a Multi-Nation Invitational Tournament here in Colorado in mid-September. They’ve extended invitations to 20 nations around the world making this the biggest invitational they’ve ever organized.

Post my two-week recovery period I will start to build my training load back slowly with cardio, strength and conditioning, and boxing practices. Dialing in my nutrition needs again as the training increases. By July I’ll travel a bit to train with my personal coach and visit other gyms for high-level sparring.

August 1st the Team comes back together in preparation for the multi-nation tournament and it’s go time again