Quanitta Underwood suffered years of sexual abuse by her father. She’s now an Olympic contender in boxing, and a public voice for other survivors:
“Underwood, of course, covets a gold medal and the fame that would come with it. ‘I want to take that ride,’ she says. ‘I want to be a household name.’
“But beyond that, she wants to be a symbol of hope to anyone who has ever been sexually abused, though to do so requires something harder for her than a thousand hours of hitting the heavy bag. She has to talk about what happened.”
Get the Longreads Weekly Email