Pacific Grove's Jamie Mitchell one step closer to Rio Olympics.

Jamie Mitchell of Pacific Grove has a past filled with torture and violence that will make your hair stand on end.

Like she told me after the cover story, "Abused Orphan to Olympic hopeful: Pacific Grove’s Jamie Mitchell completes stunning rise from tortured foster kid to champion boxer," which ran this spring: "I know I lived all of this but…it still feels unreal to read it." 

More and more—and with every passing boxing match at the recent Olympic qualifier in Baltimore, Maryland last week—her future is proving hair-raising itself.

The ultimate goal hangs there in the future: The 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, only the second Olympic Games in which women's boxing will be an event.

At the second of three Olympic qualifiers in Colorado Springs earlier this summer, Mitchell went in as a favorite, only to find herself bitterly ousted in a stunning and controversial first round upset. 

That meant Baltimore would be her last chance to earn a berth at Olympic Team Trials next month.

And not just for this Olympics, but—given her relatively seasoned boxing age of 30—likely the rest of her life.  

Fifteen women made the 112-pound, or flyweight, draw in Baltimore. 

When Mitchell's first round opponent withdrew, she took the de facto first round bye as a blessing.

Second round she rode a relentless jab and nimble combinations to a technically and physically strong win, dealing her opponent Ivette Delgado of Yonkers, New York, an 8-count near-knockout in the third round.

Mitchell ultimately claimed a unanimous decision.

As she left the ring, the head official told her, "You looked really good tonight. Keep doing what you're doing and you will be in the tryouts next month."

Mitchell hesitated to provide her analysis of the fight (and video or streaming services were unavailable)—"Sorry, I'm just a little humble," she texted—but then let it flow.

"I could've stopped her," she said after the match, "but I wanted to stay smart, knowing I was winning."

In other words, swinging for a knockout represented an unnecessary risk.

"She didn't know what to do with me," Mitchell adds. "We both boxed well, I was just stronger and smarter."

That took her to the semifinals, where she met a brawler intent on coming right at her.

There she needed more of the technical brilliance she's developed under the wise and intense counsel of former U.S. Olympic Boxing Team assistant coach Anthony Chase, who designs her ruthless conditioning regimen.

“She can box, she can think, she can set things up, she knows she has power, and has the conditioning to do it,” Chase said earlier this year. “Before she was pure heart. She still has heart, but now the boxing attributes too.”

Mitchell kept her feet moving, taking her opponent in circles to avoid allowing her to set her feet.

"I kept her off balance by using lateral foot movement—and hitting her whenever she was off balance," Mitchell says.

Another unanimous decision resulted.

In the championship bout, Mitchell faced Giovanna Camacho, a testy left-handed boxer with her own Olympic aspirations. 

The reliable formula of patience, defense and jabs carried Mitchell to another unanimous decision, though both qualified for the tryout.

"I won by being smart and dominating strategically," she says, "and I didn't get hit much."

That means come Oct. 26-31, Mitchell will be reporting to Memphis Cook Convention Center in Memphis, Tennessee, where 24 athletes will compete, with one winner being crowned in each of the three women's Olympic weight divisions.

After the championship Mitchell sunk into happiness, relief and disbelief. 

"October here I come baby," she texted her adopted dad, who was home watching her son in Pacific Grove. "What I did has not hit me yet."

Partly because she was the one doing all the hitting.