PARIS OR PRO FOR GOLD STAR?
Homecoming queen Kellie weighing up her next move
OLYMPIC gold medallist Kellie Harrington said she hasn’t even thought about what her boxing future may hold as she touched down to a hero’s welcome in Dublin yesterday.
The Dubliner is expected to receive a slew of tempting offers from the professional ranks in the coming weeks after charming the nation over the past fortnight, although the IABA and Sport Ireland will be keen to keep her in the High Performance programme for Paris 2024.
‘I don’t know yet. I have no idea,’ Harrington, 31, said when asked where her future in the ring lay, later adding: ‘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.’
Her warmth, along with the gold medal, will make her an attractive commodity to professional promoters. However, she is unlikely to make any decision imminently. ‘It is going to take me a couple of weeks, of not being around the team... to actually realise what has happened and what I have achieved,’ she added.
AT ten past five yesterday evening, the open-top bus carrying Ireland’s newest Olympic champion turned down into Portland Row. Friends and neighbours chanted Kellie Harrington’s name as she looked out on the street where she grew up.
Harrington has been an ambassador for Dublin’s inner-city long before she stood on top of an Olympic podium. She has regularly championed the area and the people it has produced – from former soccer internationals Olivia O’Toole and Wes Hoolahan to actors Barry Keoghan and Lynn Rafferty.
But the Olympic lightweight champion may become its most famous native of all.
‘Everyone is saying you have a great community and your community is fantastic, but sure I have been saying that forever, saying it for years. You mustn’t have been listening to me,’ she smiled yesterday in a press conference over Zoom.
‘But I am glad now that they are getting to see that my community is absolutely smashing and that is in both the good times and the bad times. They are always there for each other and they get behind their own. I love them and when I do see them, and all the familiar faces, I will probably end up bawling my eyes out.’
Harrington revealed that her gold medal already has a scratch on it and she may ask for a replica medal to safeguard it. Once the madness of the homecoming subsides, she is looking forward to chilling out on the sofa and eating what she can.
‘As boring as it sounds, I just want to put my feet up on a chair, sit on my sofa and watch some telly or listen to the radio with a tea or coffee and scones or cake. Stuff I can actually eat without getting up in the morning to check my weight.’
Olympic bronze medalist Aidan Walsh was also thinking about having some sweet treats as he looked forward to his own rest and relaxation. The Belfast native explained that he was going to his family’s holiday caravan in Carnlough, chilling out with a lot of chocolate and cans of Coke.
Walsh walked through Dublin Airport’s arrivals halls on crutches, a consequence of the fractured ankle that denied him a chance to turn his bronze into gold or silver, but he remained upbeat and claimed that it was still surreal to think of himself as an Olympic medalist.
‘In life in general, you just have to be positive,’ Walsh said. ‘I always just try to take the positives from everything in life. In that situation it was hard, but the positive I was taking away from it was that I was an Olympic medallist. Everything that came after that, I couldn’t control.
‘I took it all in my stride. At the end of the day, it was physically impossible to fight. That was it really but look, I am here talking to you guys with a bronze medal.’
Like Harrington, Walsh may have a number of professional promoters making contact, although the carrot remains to fight in Paris in 2024 along with sister Michaela, who was unfortunate to meet Italy’s Irma Testa, who went on to win a medal. ‘I want to see what I can do over the next few years, how far I can grow when I push myself. I think I have great times ahead and to be able to do it alongside my sister is just amazing. It fills me with more joy than anything else, even the medals. Long may it continue because it’s amazing.’
The Walsh siblings box out of Monkstown boxing club on the outskirts of Belfast and the welterweight is just excited about the idea of bringing the medal back to the gym. And the 24-yearold, who only won his first national elite title two years ago, says it is all a bit surreal how quickly things have happened for him.
‘I can’t wait for that. I just feel extremely lucky. Seriously, this is all new me. I am just a normal guy and I happened to be sitting her with an Olympic medal.
‘It is all a bit surreal. I have only been on the Irish team a few years and to be an European and Olympic medalist in that short time, it is just absolutely amazing.’ Harrington leads homecoming of Olympic medallists