Back-to-back Olympic champion achieved the most coveted sporting triumph of all, going out on a high
’s career was inevitable. There was no pathway laid out for her, no fast-track to success. No slow-track, for that matter. It wasn’t just unlikely that she would end up becoming the first Irish boxer – male or female – to win back-to-backSpin the tape back to Harrington as a young teenager, the girl her mam sent away to live in England for a while to keep her out of trouble. The girl who dropped out of school, who was lost, who felt like she didn’t belong anywhere.
Sport owes you nothing. Olympic sport, even less. Katie Taylor did more to get women’s boxing into the Games than any fighter alive and still her Olympic journey ended with a split-decision defeat in her opening bout in Rio. Harrington had been the best fighter in Tokyo in 2021 but had made no secret of the fact thatKellie Harrington celebrates winning gold at the Paris Olympics with coach Zaur Antia.
That’s who she turned herself into throughout the Olympics. For whatever reason, the organisers put the early stages of the boxing tournament in the most run-down venue at the Games. It was held in an out-of-the-way industrial estate on the north of the city. Versailles, it was not. She kept the main thing the main thing. She put Alessia Mesiano and Angie Valdes away with perfunctory ease in her opening two bouts. She put on a show against world champion Beatriz Ferreira in an exhilarating semi-final, turning what had been a close fight her way in the final round, which she won on all judges’ cards.
Olympic-Games Kellie-Harrington Paris-2024
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