BOXING
Boxing featured at the modern Olympic Games between St Louis 1904 and Paris 2024 and was Team Ireland’s most successful Olympic sport with 16 medallists.
Michael Carruth won Gold at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, and exactly 20 years to the week later, Katie Taylor won Gold at the London 2012 Olympics. She was the first Irish woman to qualify and compete in an Olympic boxing event. Kellie Harrington is the only Irish boxer to retain an Olympic title, Paddy Barnes is the only other boxer to win a medal at two Olympic Games.
Olympic Medallists from Team Ireland:
- John McNally, Silver, Bantamweight, Helsinki 1952.
- Fred Tiedt, Silver, Welterweight, Melbourne 1956.
- Tony ‘Socks’ Byrne, Bronze, Lightweight, Melbourne 1956
- Fred Gilroy, Bronze, Bantamweight, Melbourne 1956.
- John Caldwell, Bronze, Flyweight, Melbourne 1956.
- Jim McCourt, Bronze, Lightweight, Tokyo 1964.
- Hugh Russell, Bronze, Flyweight, Moscow 1980
- Michael Carruth, Gold, Welterweight, Barcelona 1992.
- Wayne McCullough, Silver, Bantamweight, Barcelona 1992.
- Kenneth Egan, Silver, Light Heavyweight, Beijing 2008.
- Darren Sutherland, Bronze, Middleweight, Beijing 2008.
- Paddy Barnes, Bronze, Light Flyweight, Beijing 2008.
- John Joe Nevin, Silver, Bantamweight, London 2012.
- Katie Taylor, Gold, Lightweight, London 2012.
- Michael Conlon, Bronze, Flyweight, London 2012.
- Paddy Barnes, Bronze, Light Flyweight, London 2012.
- Kellie Harrington, Gold, Lightweight, Tokyo 2020.
- Aidan Walsh, Bronze, Welterweight, Tokyo 2020.
- Kellie Harrington, Gold, Lightweight, Paris 2024.
BOXING NEWS
Nominations For RTE Sportsperson of the Year
Next Sunday evening, December 15th at 9:30 pm, the RTÉ Sport Awards 2024 will air live on RTÉ One and the RTÉ Player. Hosted by Joanne Cantwell, Darragh Maloney, and Jacqui Hurley from Studio 4 in RTÉ, the event will celebrate Irish sporting excellence in front of an audience filled with the nation’s top athletes. [...]
2024 OLYMPIC GAMES – DAY6 EVENING REPORT FROM TEAM IRELAND
Twenty-one-year-old Sallynoggin heavyweight (92kg) Jack Marley, who made such an impressive Olympic debut last Sunday was beaten tonight by Davlat Boltaev of Tajikistan in the 92kg quarter-finals; 4-1. Earlier talented Bray flyweight Daina Moorehouse was bitterly disappointed to be on the wrong side of a 4-1 decision in favour of hometown fighter Wassila Lkhadiri of [...]
2024 OLYMPIC GAMES – DAY 3 AFTERNOON REPORT FROM TEAM IRELAND
In Canoe Slalom double Olympian Liam Jegou put in an incredible run in the semi-final of the Men’s C1 to reach his first Olympic final an hour later where he placed an amazing seventh overall. Defending lightweight champion Kellie Harrington impressively defeated Italian Alessia Mesiano in the last 16 to advance to the quarter-finals on Wednesday evening (31st July). Her [...]
EVENING REPORT ON DAY 2 FOR TEAM IRELAND
It was good news all round for Team Ireland on the second evening of these Olympic Games. In front of a capacity crowd at the La Defense tonight Sligo swimmer Mona McSharry set a new Irish record of 1:05.51 in the semi-final of the women’s 100m breaststroke as she qualified in style for tomorrow night’s final [...]
SELECTED ATHLETES
Jennifer Lehane
BIOGRAPHY Jenny initially starred in Taekwondo, winning two European senior titles and medals at World Junior and Seniors before concentrating on boxing while studying in DCU. A National Elite title in 2021 put her firmly on the IABA High Performance radar and, just two years ago, she put her primary teaching job on hold to [...]
Gráinne Walsh
BIOGRAPHY Grainne played soccer for Shamrock Rovers and the Irish U17s before concentrating on boxing, initially with local club Spartacus. She was a World and European quarter-finalist in 2016 and a bronze medallist at the 2019 European Games but a thumb injury, which eventually needed surgery, derailed her Tokyo Olympic dream and then a dumbbell [...]
Daina Moorehouse
BIOGRAPHY A 4’ 11” pocket-rocket who famously used to rise daily at 6am to train before school, Daina won gold and ‘Best Boxer’ at the European Juniors in 2017 when she was just 15. In 2018 she beat a Russian to clinch the European Youth title and made the quarter-finals of World Youths. In 2019 [...]
Jack Marley
BIOGRAPHY Jack started boxing aged eight and won his first All-Ireland title at eleven. In 2021, aged 18, he became the second youngest national heavyweight champion in Irish amateur history. He won a bronze medal at the European U22 Championships in 2021, and turned that to gold in 2022. Last year he clinched Olympic qualification [...]
Jude Gallagher
BIOGRAPHY Jude qualified for his first Olympic Games in March by winning four rounds of the first Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Italy where he had to reach the top four. A bronze medallist at World and European Youth Championships in 2018, he won Commonwealth gold in Birmingham in 2022, beating Joseph Commey in the final [...]
Dean Clancy
BIOGRAPHY Dean qualified for his first Olympic Games at last year’s European Games where he won a bronze medal. In the same year he also won gold at the prestigious 2023 Usti nad Labem Grand Prix. His first major international success was European junior silver in 2017. A year later he won silver at European [...]
Aidan Walsh
BIOGRAPHY A Commonwealth Games silver medallist in 2018, Aidan won Olympic bronze in Tokyo by beating Merven Clair of Mauritius in the quarter-finals but an ankle injury unfortunately prevented him from contesting the semi-finals. His return to his second Olympics is remarkable given that he contemplated retirement in the past twelve months. He returned to [...]
Emmet Brennan
BIOGRAPHY Emmet is a two-time Irish champion (once at 75kg, once at 81kg) who gave up boxing at one point, then quit his job and took out a Credit Union loan to pursue his Olympic dream. In March 2019 he needed a top six finish at the Olympic Qualifiers in London to qualify and, after [...]
Kellie Harrington
BIOGRAPHY The reigning Olympic 60kg champion. Kellie’s first major was a World silver medal in 2016 (64kg). She won a World title and European bronze at 60kg in 2018 and silver at the 2019 European Games. Despite the hand injury that delayed her qualification until June 2021 she became Ireland’s third ever Olympic boxing champion [...]
Aoife O’Rourke
BIOGRAPHY Aoife originally took up boxing to get fitter for inter-county football but quickly emerged as world class, winning silver at her first major (European U22s) in 2018. She has a phenomenal 27-1 record since making her Olympic Games debut in 2021 where she lost to China’s two-time silver medallist Qian Li in the last [...]
Kurt Walker
BIOGRAPHY Kurt was a World and European Youth medallist in 2012 and 2013 respectively and won bronze at the 2017 European Championships. In 2018 he took silver at Commonwealth Games and gold at the EU Championships. In 2019 he won gold at the European Games, all at bantamweight (56kg). He had an exceptionally tough 2020, [...]
Brendan Irvine
BIOGRAPHY Brendan, who is captain of the boxing team, is competing in his second Olympics and was just 20 when he competed in Rio 2016 where he was beaten in the last 16 by Ukbekistan’s Shakhobiddin Zoirov. He won 49kg silver at the 2015 European Games in Baku. In 2017 he won a bronze at [...]
Michaela Walsh
BIOGRAPHY Michaela won bronze at World Youths in 2011 and Commonwealth silver in 2014 (flyweight) which she repeated at featherweight in 2018 when she also won European Championship bronze. She took silver at the 2019 European Games and in 2021 qualified for her first Olympics by finishing runner-up in the final Qualifier. Walsh lost to [...]