OLYMPIAN’S JAB AT FUNDS SHORTAGES
IRISH Olympic hero Kellie Harrington has called for better funding for boxing and women’s sports as she arrived home following her gold medal triumph in Tokyo.
Harrington said her next steps would be either another run at the next Olympics or turning her hand to the professional sport, saying it would be ‘Paris or pro’.
She told reporters at Dublin Airport: ‘I’m exhausted so I can’t wait to get some time with my family and with Mandy [her partner], and see my dogs as well. It’s great, the support out here.
‘It’s great to see the rest of the boxing team out to welcome us,
‘I have no tears left to cry’
and friends and family. It’s amazing. The whole nation has been on wheels, I think, since this started. It’s just fantastic to give people [something] to be smiling about, to be joyful for.
‘Small but mighty we are, small but mighty.’
While soaking up the adulation from fans, Harrington paid tribute to her teammates, saying: ‘It means the world to me to bring back the gold.
‘But my mentality is, anybody who steps through those ropes and makes it to an Olympic Games is a champion, regardless of whether you bring a medal back or not. For me, it’s not always about winning medals and stuff like that. It’s about getting through the doors of the boxing club, for all the young people out there, all the teenagers out there. It’s about stepping through the doors first, meeting people and becoming part of a family then.
‘Whatever happens after that is a bonus really.
‘Boxing is an escape for a lot of people. I just hope that with the success that we’ve had out here, that we get a lot of funding now into local boxing clubs and we support local boxing clubs. ‘That’s what we need.’ On her emotional reunion with her parents and partner Mandy, the gold medallist said: ‘I have no tears left to cry. Normally I’m crying all the time.
‘They’re all bawling their eyes out. I’m really happy that it’s them instead of me this time!’
Asked what she’d like to see now, she said: ‘I’d love to see a lot more funding going into boxing. A lot more funding going into women’s sports.’
And she insisted she has plenty more to offer in the ring, joking: ‘I’m not done yet. I know I’m going grey and all, but I’m not done.’
Asked about her next move, she added: ‘I’ll see. It’s either Paris or pro. It depends on the offers I’m going to get. We’ll see what offers come my way and I’ll do whatever’s best for me.’
But she dismissed questions over whether she could end up facing another Irish Olympic boxing hero – Katie Taylor – in the ring. ‘I knew this was going to be the question. To me, that’s a question that shouldn’t even be asked. This is about my time, this is about me winning an Olympic medal,’ she said.
‘And I’m going to stick to that. She’s doing her thing, I’m doing my thing.
‘Anybody else who asks me that question, that’s the answer.’
Harrington’s brother Christopher, who travelled home from Iceland to watch her Olympic triumph, said the gold medal was the ‘cherry on top’ of her hard work. He said: ‘It is just brilliant. I hadn’t seen Kellie since before Covid. It is the first time I’ve seen her in about two years and now she is an Olympic champion.
‘I don’t know how I feel, it’s very emotional. She didn’t realise I had come home until after she won the gold medal and saw me on the videos.
‘It means a lot to us because of what it means for her. She had worked all her life in terms of her boxing career, so it’s brilliant that she has finally got it.
‘We are just so happy for her. Getting a gold Olympic medal is the cherry on top for any amateur athlete.
‘She has given up a lot and worked very, very hard over the years, consistently. It’s the pinnacle, she’s reached it.’