St. Paul boxer and high school student Natalia Young sets sights on Olympic gold

On the east side of St. Paul, Natalia Young is lacing up for battle. Unlike most teen girls, she and her dad spar in the boxing ring.

For them, fighting is loving.

"I said this is a way for me to build a relationship and bond with my daughter, right?" Thomas Young, Natalia Young's father, said. "I say boxing is in Natalia's DNA for sure, because I grew up in a boxing gym, and when I started coming to the gym, I was bringing Natalia around at three. And I remember I came home one day, and Natalia had the gloves on and I was just like, you know, tired of working out, so I started messing with her, in terms of throwing the combinations and mitt work. And Natalia, I was like, 'One,' and she threw the one. And then I said, 'Two,' and she threw the two and twisted her back foot. And I said, okay, she has something."

For years, it was just for fun. WCCO asked if, for a long time, the boxing was just about spending time together. 

"100%, it was. It was for sure a way for us to just be close," Thomas Young said. "But Natalia started throwing combinations better than I could throw combinations. And she would pick up quick. And I'm like, how is this little girl picking up these combinations quick? So I'll try to do a longer combination, and I'm new to working mitts and Natalia's picking it up. Then she'll get frustrated at me because I'm forgetting the combination and she remembers it. So it just grew from there."

WCCO asked Natalia Young, a freshman at Highland Park Senior High School in St. Paul, what she likes about boxing.

"Everything about it. I've been around it my whole life. It just doesn't feel normal if I don't do it," she said.

Thomas Young added, "She asked, can she fight? And everybody around me was telling me she's ready. And so we flew down to Florida, signed her up, and got on the Sugar Bert card. Natalia fought and dominated. I mean, she boxed brilliantly, didn't get touched, threw her combinations. I think she captured the crowd's attention really quickly and stopped the girl in the first round. So she made a statement not only to the crowd, but to me, and said, 'Yo, I'm ready.'"

WCCO asked Natalia Young about the feeling she gets when she fights. 

"You'll always get a sense of adrenaline or nervousness, but when that bell rings, it always goes away. Like, I'm ready," she said.

And she proved it quickly. She's now ranked at the top of her weight class by USA Boxing.

"After she won that fight [in Florida], she came out of the ring, and we were walking, and another coach came up to us and we never met him. He was like, 'She's a future Olympian.' The way she seen and dictated her combinations, he went head, body, head, body, that's something you can't just teach," Thomas Young said.

"I want to get on the USA Boxing team and then eventually go to the Olympics and win gold," Natalia Young said. "Like, my dad was asking me, because I kept telling him I want to stay at my school to graduate with my friends, and he was like, 'If you were to get on the USA Boxing team, you realize you would have to move.' I'm like, 'I'm fine with that. I'll move.' A lot of sports require sacrifice, and if that's a sacrifice I have to make, I'll make it."

She's in the thick of training, coached by her father, as she heads to nationals in December.