Meet Alyssa Mendoza
If you think living a simple life is the same as living a boring one, it’s time you meet boxing champion and ICCU member Alyssa Mendoza.
Born and raised in a middle-class home in Caldwell, Idaho — with a makeshift boxing ring swallowing the inside of her family’s shed — 20-year-old Alyssa is anything but flashy … and anything but boring.
Nicknamed the Wrecking Machine for her fearless attitude in the ring, Alyssa (57kg) punched her ticket to Paris by unanimously winning each of her bouts at the final world qualification tournament in May. The undisputed wins marked her as both the youngest member of this year’s boxing team and as Idaho’s first boxer at the Games.
That’s in 2024 alone. In 2023, Alyssa medaled in three international tournaments, and in 2022, she won gold at the National Golden Gloves and USA Boxing Elite National Championships.
But just like a true Idahoan, she doesn’t let those victories go to her head. Her family describes her as grounded, strong-minded, and genuine, with an unshakable yet quiet confidence. If you stumbled into her on the street, she wouldn’t introduce herself as a world-class athlete — she’d turn the conversation back to focus on you.
“She was never really a show-off,” says father and coach JR Mendoza. “But when she walks into a room, she doesn’t need to say anything. You know when she walks in. That’s how it has always been.”
Learn the Mendoza Strategy
As the featherweight boxer prepares to beat the best of the best in Paris, she’s channeling the values that both Idaho and the Mendozas are known for: Strength in simplicity.
Her home gym isn’t flashy, but it packs a powerful punch — like the Mendozas themselves. Including only a boxing ring in the shed, a stationary bike on the front steps, and a handful of flipped tires on a dirt driveway, the gym doubles as the training grounds for not only Mendoza but several young Idaho boxers. JR trains the athletes after clocking off from his day job, plumbing, to spread his love of the sport and help keep kids off the streets.
“We’re all strong mentally and physically …. We’re all very dedicated to something,” says Alyssa. “I mean, my dad’s a hard worker; when he goes to work, he gets his job done. My brother’s a hard worker, my sister’s a hard worker …. We’re all mentally strong, especially my dad. He’s taught me to be mentally strong. I think that’s what makes us so good.”
Alyssa’s family and home have anchored her, especially as she travels across the world to compete. Where her dad offers sound advice and unbeatable willpower, her stepmom Wendy offers a listening ear and a dependable lifestyle, even stepping in the ring to better understand the challenges her daughter faces. And when Alyssa is with her 19-year-old sister and best friend Alexandra Luby, she has a chance to get rowdy and be a kid again.
Even in the ring, Alyssa has been known to carry a piece of home with her. “I love this state. This is home,” she said in a 2022 interview. “I even have a pair of socks I like to fight in that are the Idaho flag. When I think back to here, I hope to make my family proud. I wouldn’t want to represent any state other than Idaho cause that’s just home to me. I hope I make Idaho proud.”
Wendy explains: “It goes back to the simple things that give her comfort. She gets to go out, see the world, and experience all this stuff for the last few years, and still nothing compares to coming home — the feeling of just being in her bed is the greatest thing. Everything that got her to this place, I think she’s just very grateful for it.”
Beat the Odds
Still, that doesn’t mean the path to the global arena has been anything close to easy. Like many world-class athletes, Alyssa has sacrificed financially, socially, emotionally, and physically to get her chance of standing in the ring. Her family could rarely afford to fly, so they drove to most of her bouts, including the ones 35-40 hours away. While other kids her age dated, went to homecomings and proms, and spent time with friends after school, Alyssa poured time and sweat into her boxing passion.
Those sacrifices are nothing compared to the psychological ones. For six years, Alyssa endured people who tried to knock down her dream. She’s here in the ring now because she won the fight to use her voice and carve her own path in life. In many ways, the tough-minded yet humble Mendoza attitude made the difference between her success and failure, both inside and outside the ring.
As Wendy says, “Sometimes I like to say that boxing was the easy part … It was almost like training was the relief of life, of the pure battle of just wanting to be herself. [Being able to box] gives her a sense of gratitude — we had to fight and sacrifice in so many ways just to have the life we have now.”
The American team sent eight boxers to Italy. To progress to Paris, each had to finish in the top four of their weight class — all but Alyssa, who needed to finish in the top two. Alyssa won the first four fights, earning an RSC in bouts against Mexico and Morocco. (A bout counts as an RSC when the ref stops the match early to announce the clear supremacy of one fighter.)
Then came the fight against Julia Szeremeta from Poland. It was close, and that only made the outcome more haunting: Szeremeta outlasted Mendoza in a 3-2 split decision. Just like that, her hope of qualifying in Italy vanished.
“I am so incredibly thankful for the experience of a lifetime, and yet we fell short of our goal,” said Alyssa in an Instagram post shortly after the tournament. “God has assured me that we aren’t done. It hurts … but in the end, I won’t stop. He is my strength and has given me the spirit of resilience.”
True to her word, Alyssa didn’t stop. With one final chance to qualify, she obliterated her opponents in Thailand, winning the finals by unanimous decision and securing her spot in Paris.
The rest is history in the making.
Get in the Champion’s Corner
While everyone on the team stands as an emblem of the American Dream, Alyssa is the champion of Idaho’s dream. That’s why we at ICCU are in Alyssa’s corner. She doesn’t just come from humble beginnings; she honors them. She doesn’t just work hard; she enjoys the work. And when she finds success, she shares it with the people and the roots that got her there. Her win is Idaho’s win.
*Quotes have been lightly edited for length and clarity.
