Kieran Joyce competed in the boxing at two consecutive Olympic Games – the 1984 Los Angeles Games at light-middleweight and the 1988 Seoul Games at middleweight – and was awarded the Cork Boxer of the Century title in 2014.

A member of Sunnyside Boxing Club in Cork, coached by the celebrated Albie Murphy, Joyce won his first bout at Los Angeles, stopping Basil Boniface of the Seychelles, before losing a disputed majority decision to Finland’s Joni Nyman – a result that drew strong protest, as his opponent had been cautioned on a number of occasions for holding without receiving the public warning that would have secured the verdict for Joyce.

The Irish boxing team at Los Angeles had benefited for the first time from a proper pre-Olympic camp at Lake Placid, New York, with quality sparring partners from Uganda, Zimbabwe, Benin and Central Africa. At Seoul in 1988, Joyce again won his opening bout, stopping Fili Vaka of Tonga in the first round, before losing 3-2 to Fred Wanyama of Uganda in the last 16. In 1987, Joyce, his brother Gordon and clubmate Paul Buttimer won national senior titles on the same evening at the National Stadium in Dublin.