Boxer with Brownsville roots sets sights on 2020 Olympic games

A boxer from New York City is closing in on the 2020 Tokyo Olympic games.
A winner of the U.S. Olympic boxing trials, Brooklyn native Bruce Carrington is just one step away from the 2020 summer games.
But he's rarely missed his big brother more. His brother Ike was shot and killed in 2014 in a seemingly random murder in the same Brownsville neighborhood that Carrington has embraced since he started boxing at the age of 7.
"It's always going to be bittersweet moments when something good happens. Like I was ecstatic, but I was just still wishing he was here physically. I know he's here spiritually, but I get selfish sometimes," Carrington says.
"Brownsville, you got to understand is a small neighborhood. It's a neighborhood that produces like eight world champions. You have Riddick Bowe, Mike Tyson, Zab Juddah, Danny Jacobs,” Carrington says. “You have to have a lot of pride coming out of Brownsville being a boxer. You have something to live up to."
To Carrington, Brownsville is also the same neighborhood that he knew boxing could get him out of.
"I was just a sponge, I was just grabbing up everything, and just trying to learn everything, I was watching old tapes, I just began to fall in love with the sport even more and really understand that this is something that's going to change my life. This is something that's going to get my family out the hood, this is something that's going make everything stable," Carrington says.
And while he wasn't able to do that in time for Ike, Carrington says he still feels the impact of "his biggest fan."
"He always wanted me to be the best. He believed in me at times when I didn't believe in myself. It's crazy how all of the stuff he did while he was on this earth, it comes back years later. But, you know, I’m just going to continue to be strong and take care of the family and make him proud," Carrington says.
This past spring, Carrington was able to move the rest of his family out of Brooklyn, and to Long Island. But the eventual goal is to one day come back to Brownsville to open his own boxing gym.
"Honestly, there's so many people in that neighborhood that has talent, but don't know what to do with it, or honestly just don't know what to do their lives,” Carrington says. “You got to give them hope, consistency, like they have a goal, like they mean something in this world."
Carrington hopes to lock down his spot in the Olympics this April.