Brooklyn born boxer Heather Hardy wants to be a world champion. She will not compete this month to make the first women’s Olympic boxing team – she plans to go pro instead. But getting paid to fight – when you’re a woman – is difficult even for top tier boxers. So, like female boxers around the world, Hardy hopes the women who enter the ring in London this summer will change her life, too.

Meet Christy Halbert, widely regarded as the foremost expert on women’s boxing.

Men have boxed in the Olympic games since the ancient Greeks adopted the sport more than two thousand years ago.  Women, never. That changes this year. In February, 24 fighters will compete to make the very first US Olympic women’s boxing team. Three will succeed.

It is hard to believe that in 2012 we’re still seeing firsts when it comes to women athletes. Yet, this summer in London a strong and glorious group of international women boxers will enter the ring and compete for Olympic medals for the first time.

My goal before boxing was to have 10 kids. Now my goal is to get this gold medal.

This summer in London, women will box in the Olympics for the first time. The boxers competing for a spot on the US team will make history – but few know who they are or why they box. Images of women boxers range from girls throwing soft punches in bikinis and lipstick to women who look and act like men. The Olympic hopefuls are neither--but everything in between.

“I’m not in there to get life skills. I’m in there to be great and win a gold medal.”

Men have boxed in the Olympic games since the ancient Greeks adopted the sport more than two thousand years ago. Women, never. That changes this year, when women enter the Olympic boxing ring for the first time.

1876: New York Hills Theater holds a boxing match between Nell Saunders and Rose Harland. This is considered the first female boxing match in the United States. The top prize? A silver butter dish.

1904: Men and women’s boxing is introduced at the modern Olympic games in St. Louis ...

The tradition of boxing gyms that offer troubled kids a chance to learn self-control is still alive. But until this past decade, those gyms were populated by boys. That has changed.