Transforming sport for women is Katie Taylor’s finest legacy

LESS than a decade before wowing the world of sport and dazzling spectators at the legendary Madison Square Garden, Katie Taylor was giving thanks for a toilet.

She was an Olympic champion at the time, but had driven herself to greatness despite making do with hopelessly inadequate facilities.

In January 2014, Bray Boxing Club was reopened after an upgrade that cost €300,000, and the revamp added toilets and showers for women.

Eighteen months earlier, thenTaoiseach Enda Kenny had professed shock on a visit to the club when he was told that Ms Taylor, then a three-time world champion and only weeks away from winning an Olympic gold in London, was obliged to visit a nearby pub if she wanted to use the toilet while training.

The story of the toilet came to serve as a useful shorthand for the sacrifices made by Katie Taylor on her rise to global stardom.

Her brilliance, which hit bloody and sometimes brutal new peaks in her defeat of Amanda Serrano a week ago, is a consequence of an iron will and a discipline that verges on the ascetic.

But she is also richly talented, possessed of speed and a sense of timing that saw her reach national standard as a soccer player.

These are some of the reasons why she is the most popular sporting figure in Ireland, with a good claim on being the most gifted.

Even the most vibrant natural talent needs nurturing, though, and this is where the toilet assumes a fresh relevance.

Ms Taylor endured pitiful conditions for years, partly because girls weren’t expected to frequent boxing clubs, but also because women’s sport was, until the last two decades, generally regarded as an afterthought.

Her role in changing that will probably be her finest legacy, and that really is saying something.

She showed what was possible. She kindled dreams.

She found a way.

Hers is an exceptional talent – a rare blaze of brilliance of the kind that appears only every few generations, and her importance as an inspiration to others can’t be overstated.

She is a study in what happens when sport is properly funded on a consistent, targeted basis. The provision of a women’s toilet in a boxing club in Bray was both a good news story and a mortifying indictment of how things used to be done.

It is the lower-profile investment that holds the key to unlocking potential in women’s sport.

There are clubs all over the island, backboned by volunteers who are as skilled at fundraising as they are at coaching, constantly striving to guarantee viability through the next fun run or quiz night. Without these efforts, many of them couldn’t survive.

Their work is unseen and generally unheralded, but their value to society, beyond just sport, is immense.

These clubs serve as social outlets and sometimes as refuges. They also emphasise the value of physical and mental health, which have never been as important.

And they discover uncommon talents too – the future Olympic stars who are honed for greatness among the grass roots.

But most of those lacing up gloves, trying to clear hurdles or struggling to balance a sliotar will not become famous, or great, or even very accomplished. What they will do is enjoy a life enriched by the lessons and virtues imparted uniquely by sport.

They will have access to opportunities that a decade ago would have seemed fanciful.

That is down to Katie Taylor. She helped change how this country treats and funds women in sport, more than any other athlete or politician. She is the inspiration. Her legend will endure as long as girls dare to dream.