Aira Villegas

Aira Cordero Villegas (born August 1, 1995) is a Filipino amateur boxer. She won a bronze medal in the inaugural women's Light Flyweight event at the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Early life Villegas was born on August 1, 1995, in Tacloban. Her older brother, Rominick, was a boxer who had won titles in their province and was a university scholar at the government-managed Leyte Sports Academy. He taught her boxing when she was nine years old, at first for fun. When Typhoon Yolanda hit Tacloban, their family lost their home. Motivated by her brother and her desire to provide for their family, she decided to pursue boxing. For the 2022 edition in Turkey, she was forced to move to the -50 kg division after her previous class was scrapped.

In 2021, the Philippine Olympic Committee named Villegas as a beneficiary of the Olympics Solidarity Scholarship Grant by the International Olympic Committee.

She has also competed at the 2022 Asian Games which was held in September 2023 in Hangzhou, China. Villegas is also a Southeast Asian Games medalist, having won a bronze in the 2019 edition organized in the Philippines.

Villegas qualified for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, by winning the quota bouts round, of the women's flyweight division, at the 2024 World Olympic Qualification Tournament 1 in Busto Arsizio, Italy.

At the Olympics, she won a bronze medal after losing to Turkish boxer Buse Naz Çakıroğlu in the semi-finals.

Personal life Villegas studies criminology at the University of Baguio.

Summer Olympics Light flyweight (50 kg) Olympic qualification Defeated Mckenzie Wright (Canada) PTS 3-2 Defeated Sofie Rosshaug (Denmark) UD 5-0 Defeated Zlatislava Chukanova (Bulgaria) UD 5-0 2024 Summer Olympics results Defeated Yasmine Mouttaki (Morocco) UD 5-0 Defeated Roumaysa Boualam (Algeria) UD 5-0 Defeated Wassila Lkhadiri (France) SD 3-2 Lost to Buse Naz Çakıroğlu (Turkey) UD 5-0 (claim bronze medal)