Norwegian boxer Cecilia Brækhus has been breaking glass ceilings in the male sport since 2007 when she made her professional debut. Here, Vogue Scandinavia learns more about the world title holder
There are shades of Billy Elliott in the story of how Cecilia Brækhus started on her path to becoming one of the world’s greatest boxers. “I had to climb through my bedroom window,” she says of sneaking out to kickboxing classes in Bergen, where young women weren’t exactly encouraged to frequent sweaty gyms. But, at 13, Brækhus was adamant. “I was good at it, and as a young girl being good at something is extremely important.”
This obstinacy has defined Brækhus’s career, especially coming from Norway, where professional boxing was illegal until 2019. She had to move elsewhere in Europe, and break glass ceilings as well as glass jaws to earn her moniker as ‘The First Lady of Boxing’. She was the first woman to join her professional gym in Germany – “The first-time I told my old-school East German coach I was on my period there was pure horror in his eyes” – and went on to become the first ever boxer to hold five world titles simultaneously.
Ceciliea Brækhus has earned the well-deserved moniker 'First Lady of boxing' for her many first. Photo: Madison Krieger
“At my first professional gym in Germany, it took me a year before the rest of the guys accepted me and spoke to me as an equal,” she says. “I had to prove myself to them and the coach. Early on in my career, my promoters were only signing one girl, and they were deciding between my opponent and me.” It was a battle between two women on who could continue their career as a professional boxer. “That would’ve never happened if I was a guy.”
The unequal aspects of boxing are, sadly, not a thing of the past. At 39, Cecilia Brækhus feels her body changing in a sport that places severe physical demands on its athletes. “Not to mention that all of the programmes developed to shred weight before weigh-ins are developed for men,” she points out. Men who don’t face the same physical changes as women. For Brækhus, this became abundantly clear ahead of her fateful match against rival Jessica McCaskill last year.
At the start of the pandemic, Brækhus decided that she needed a change. Heading to the mountains to train, she suddenly found herself stuck. “I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t go to Norway because I didn’t know if I would get back into the US if I did.” Struggling with her mental health and losing weight, locked away in the mountain facility without family or friends to support her, she could feel herself cracking under the pressure. Brækhus felt on the ropes, on the verge of defeat. In a way, she had lost the match before ever setting foot in the ring.
The bout – and subsequent rematch – wasn’t really about Jessica McCaskill, Brækhus tells me. Instead, it was a story about isolation and weight loss. “I remember the night before the weigh-in. I had to lose two kilos. I was running up and down stairs in a sweatsuit, and it was horrible.” The realisation that her body wasn’t working the same way as before was difficult to wrap her head around. “It was a struggle because it was the first time I haven't had fun with boxing. I think that says a lot, because I have loved martial arts since I was 13-years-old. It’s been my life.”
But Brækhus isn’t one to give up easily. “That's also the reason why I have to continue. I need to do a fight where I’m enjoying it again.” That’s the essence of Brækhus’s new gambit: to reignite her passion for the sport by surrounding herself with the people she loves. She missed having someone in her corner, both literally and figuratively.
As she battles to rediscover her love for boxing, Brækhus is hopeful for the future of the sport. As a woman of firsts, she wants the girls coming up today to have a different experience. “I always hoped that they wouldn’t have to go through all the things that I had to. And they don’t. It's a completely new day for female boxers who are just starting out. They are now allowed to compete at the Olympics [as of 2012], allowed into training facilities and everything… It’s just a whole new story.”
Cecilia Brækhus hopes to leave the world of boxing more inclusive than when she first started. Photo: Cecilia Brækhus (@Ceciliabraekhus)
It is said that athletes die twice: once when they can no longer compete and once at the end of their lives. But Brækhus isn’t worried. She has been preparing mentally for the last couple of years. “That’s why I’m not leaving the sport now. If I did, it would have been a problem for me for the rest of my life.” Instead, she wants to leave feeling great about herself and boxing.
At the end of the day, Cecilia Brækhus is not just a great female boxer. She is simply a great boxer.