RESEARCH suggests that up to 35 per cent of elite athletes are affected by considerable mental health struggles at some stage of their careers.
Competing at sport’s highest level as Olympians, no matter how well, can subsequently trigger a dip in mood and motivation.
Not so for Roscommon boxer Aoife O’Rourke whose brilliant post-Paris year has proved her impervious to the emotional paradox that is often described as ‘the post Olympic slump’.
Beaten in her second Olympic Games by a Polish opponent whom she had previously conquered, the three-time European 75kg champion has somehow managed to firmly park that and excelled since.
First she medalled at the IBA World Boxing Championships in Serbia in March where she and younger sibling Lisa (23) made history as the first sisters to make finals at that level, both bringing home silver.
Six months later Aoife has surpassed that by winning her first global title at the World Championships in Liverpool last month, the inaugural international elites organised by World Boxing, the organisation to which Olympic boxing is now affiliated.
So how has the talented middleweight bounced back so impressively?
“I don’t know if it’s just the way I am but I got over it very quickly, I just moved on,” explains the 28-year-old from Tarmon, outside Castlerea.
“Don’t get me wrong, obviously I was disappointed. I didn’t train to go out and not do well. I gave it my best in Paris and my best just wasn’t good enough on that day. That’s sport, you’re not going to do well every time.
“But if I’m stuck back in July 2024 I’d never move on and I wouldn’t have succeeded or achieved what I have this year.
“A loss is a loss but if I want to continue to try to succeed and reach my goals I just can’t be dwelling on it. To be honest I don’t even think about it,” she reveals.
That shows a mental fortitude as powerful as her punch.
O’Rourke originally took up the sport as a means to improve her fitness for gaelic football but has since become a brilliant technical boxer who, like all great athletes, retains a savage hunger for hard work and improvement.
Her favourite thing to do when she’s not training with Ireland’s elite squad in Abbotstown is to go to the gym and meet friends for coffee.
Herself and Lisa (23) even find time to excel in Hyrox, the burgeoning indoor fitness competition that alternates 1km runs with eight strength challenges. They qualified for Hyrox’s World Championships in Chicago in June and won a doubles title in the 16-29 year-old age group.
But boxing remains Aoife’s priority which means she doesn’t get to help out as much as she’d like anymore on the family farm on her weekends at home.
Her grandfather Donal was a vet so she’s a big animal lover and has a four-year-old St Bernard called ‘Harper’. “I got her as puppy after the Tokyo Olympics. She’s grown a fair bit since but is a great guard dog.”
Two of the family’s five girls are nursing in Australia – “they get up in the middle of the night when we’re boxing and watch it on the YouTube links” – and the youngest Ailish, who works in the local primary school, plays rugby for Creggs RFC, for whom their father starred.
When they were younger Lisa, a world champion herself at 70kg, often shared the canvas with her big sister.
“She sparred for me before Tokyo and we would have been good sparring partners a few years ago but, as we’ve progressed, we couldn’t keep doing full contact with each other.
“We’d never be in the ring together now unless it’s low intensity, low impact stuff because otherwise we’d be killing each other!” she laughs.
As always her world title was greeted with huge fanfare and celebrations by club and county but Aoife admits their latest homecoming was tinged with a little bitter-sweetness.
“They had the brass band out and everything which was very special but, in a way, coming home with the two silvers earlier this year was just as special. I felt it was hard for Lisa (a beaten quarter-finalist) this time.
“I knew exactly how she was feeling because when she won the World Championships in 2022 I was paraded up the town with her and it’s hard when the shoe is on the other foot. It went well for me this time and she was just a bit unlucky.”
Theirs is a remarkable sibling sports story, not least because Castlerea BC was only founded 14 years ago.
“I’m not just saying it because it’s our club but I genuinely haven’t seen another boxing club the size of it in the country. It’s at the Hub Enterprise Centre where there’s also a gym and a basketball court. Our clubs hosts the Connacht Championships and we had our training camp there, with Ukraine, before Paris last year.
“That’s all down to Paddy Sharkey. He coached us from the start and must have seen something in Lisa and myself because he gave us so much extra time. I’ve seen him working there at all hours of the night, cleaning and whatnot. Himself and his wife Helen have put some hours into it.”
Paddy’s reward, no doubt, is seeing Castlerea’s superstar sisters blossom and shine for Team Ireland on the world stage yet Aoife insists she would be just as committed and happy without all her medals.
“I genuinely love being an athlete and the whole lifestyle it involves. If you’re successful along the way that kind of motivates you. It drives you on to keep achieving but I think, without success or not, I’d still be doing some form of sport because I love how it challenges you and keeps on challenging you.”