The family is hoping to raise $10,000 to pay for travel expenses. Watch video
Malikah Stevenson hates to fly. If it were up to her, she'd never step foot in an airport again in her life. But what's a mom to do when her son is boxing for a gold medal at the Olympics?
She gets on a plane, that's what. Shakur Stevenson, the 18-year-old Newark native, believes -- with good reason, given his undefeated international record -- that he'll be standing atop the medal stand in August. Mom can't miss that. Mom won't miss that.
"My baby wants me to go, so I said I'll go," she said, and then with a laugh. "I'm still scared, but I'll go."
But there's a bigger problem: Mom can't afford to pay for the trip. So "Team Shakur" has started a Go Fund Me page in hopes of raising the $10,000 to send her and Shakur's grandfather, Wali Moses, to Rio de Janeiro. If they meet their goal, Shakur's oldest brother, Ibn, will also make the trip.
The first donation to the fund was $1,000 and from someone who wanted to remain anonymous. "That made me think, 'Okay, maybe we can do this,'" Malikah Stevenson said.
The trip is so expensive because Stevenson could be competing for as many as 10 days. The preliminaries in his class, bantamweight, begin on August 10 and the finals are not until August 20, the day before Closing Ceremonies.
See all of New Jersey's Olympic hopefuls
Stevenson credits his strong support system for helping him become an elite boxer at such a young age. He is the oldest of nine kids, and whenever he makes the trip back to Newark from the Olympic training center in Colorado Springs, most or all of his brothers and sisters are at his side.
"It's amazing to know that I have family to back me up, people who have my back and support me at all times," Stevenson said in his most recent visit to the city last month. "I want to provide for them. I want to get them a lot of stuff. I want to make their lives easier."
Will enough people make it easier for that family to support his Olympic journey? Click here to help.
Steve Politi may be reached at spoliti@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @StevePoliti. Find Steve on Facebook.