First Nation's Mary Spencer Out of 2012 London Olympics

Levi Rickert, editor-in-chief in Entertainment. Discussion »

LONDON, ENGLAND – Before 10,000 boxing fans, First Nations Ojibway Mary Spencer's hopes of taking home an Olympic medal were dashed on Monday.

Mary Spencer - First Nations Ojibway, in Red, Connects
with Jinzi Li of China

She lost in a 17-14 decision to Chinese fighter Jinzi Li in the women's quarterfinals. She had advanced to the quarterfinals through a bye. Her loss was a surprise to the three time women's boxing champion, who previously beat Li 14-2 in 2010.

With the bye, she needed only one victory to ensure an Olympic medal. Unfortunately, she will return to Canada empty handed.

The Toronto Star summed up her defeat this way:

It was almost as if the 27 year old seized up under the pressure of the moment, dropping her hands too often, not using her jab to keep Li at a distance and showing little of the speed that has been her hallmark since she took up boxing 10 years ago.

“I don't have an excuse for losing,”

Spencer told the press after the fight.

“Right now, it hasn't sunk in.”

“To be honest, it's not like I had intentions of just coming here and giving it a shot and seeing what happened. I came here, I wanted to win gold,”

she said.

“So having a bunch of other people who are like, yeah, okay, 'You can definitely go there and medal,' that's not pressure if I've already told myself that's what I expect…It was support and it was very much appreciated.”

At 27, Spencer can still look forward to the 2016 Canada.