Kellie Harrington keen to get back to what she does best

Kellie Harrington is making gestures with her hands to help articulate how the body reacted to full-tilt training again after the Tokyo Olympics. She holds them at one level then points into a nose dive.

It’s another reflection of her enduring ambition. The plan was to try back up her Olympic gold medal with another World Championship title in December – the winning prize of $100,000 would have been nice too – only they’re postponed again until March 2022, which for Harrington has come as a blessing in disguise.

“It was welcome, I know that sounds crazy but it was, because I kind of do need a break,” she says.

“I’m going to be 32 soon [next month] and your body does need time to recover as well, after everything it’s been through. Because when you look back at 2021, we had a very big year with the qualifiers, then ran straight back into the actual Olympics.

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Professional, they're like sharks. They just get their teeth in and they just want what they want

“Sometimes athletes make stupid decisions and do stupid things. I came back knowing the World Championships were in December. After having a break, I went back in and went back to where I finished, where I thought I could start, and that was a stupid mistake on my end.

“I got a little run down, I started to get cold sores, that’s when I’m run down I get a cold sore on my mouth. The coaches called me in and were like, ‘Kellie, you can’t just come back and finish where you left off, you have to slowly, slowly, slowly come back up’.

“I was jumping back in where I’d left off, that was the problem, that’s where you run the risk of getting injured. Because now, the worlds are going to be in March, I can now start to do preparation slowly, carefully, minding myself really well and I’m not jumping the gun, I’m getting back in the right way.

“Say come next year in January, if I didn’t have a goal or a plan that would be very, very hard for a sports person because you constantly need something. For me, anyway, I need routine in my life and I need goals to try and keep me motivated.”

“But I love having my downtime as well, sitting on my chair in my pyjamas and eating whatever I want, whatever time I want to eat it. if I want to go up to the shop and get coffee slices and cakes and come down and stuff my face and feel like I shouldn’t be doing it, then I’ll do it.”

The uncertainty around those World Championships in Istanbul may have receded for now (although Covid-19 numbers remain stubbornly high in Turkey, the March date perhaps optimistic), only boxing itself is still in conflict – at home and internationally.

Full backing

Given the in-house fighting at the Irish Amateur Boxing Association (IABA), it’s still unclear if Bernard Dunne will stay in his role as high performance director through to Paris 2024; that’s assuming boxing will still be an Olympic sport, The International Boxing Association (AIBA) still trying to win back the trust of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Harrington wants nothing to do with either fight, except to give her full backing to Dunne and the rest of the IABA coaching staff.

“I haven’t read a thing about it, I have no idea what’s going on and that’s not me just pretending because I don’t know what to say, I genuinely haven’t. What I will say, though, is that for me, while I’ve been involved in the high-performance and since Bernard has come into the high performance, female boxing has definitely been impacted massively and for all the good while Bernard has been involved. I don’t know what’s happening and I can only speak well of Bernard. Whatever he does will be right for him but I hope we don’t lose them.”

And the fear that boxing may not be in Paris?

“All I know is that the boxing task force did an absolutely great job out in Tokyo. There was talk about it before Tokyo. When I hear stuff like that, only think that it is hot air being blown. It is only threats because I can’t imagine an Olympics without boxing.”

Back working every second weekend in her cleaning job at St Vincent’s Psychiatric Hospital in Dublin, Harrington has no fear or regret either that she made the right decision to stay amateur, despite Michael Conlon recently trying to convince her otherwise.

“Staying amateur is the best thing for me. It’s what I’m about. In amateur boxing, I do feel that amateur boxing is about clubs about grassroots and community, and in those clubs you bond family. You become a part of a family and you build relationships with people in the club.

‘Like sharks’

“Professional, they’re like sharks. They just get their teeth in and they just want what they want. I haven’t been there so I don’t really know. From looking in, that’s what I feel, and from what I hear off people, as well, it is a business. It is a business and people are out to make off you.

“They’re not really out for your welfare, they’re just out to line the pocket of themselves. For me, that’s not what sport is about. At the moment, I’m in a sport, yeah, it’s also a profession. But if I was to turn professional, it would be a business, and I ain’t no business woman.”

Once she does return to full-tilt training , the motivation for the World Championships remains the same.

“Just to get back out, normality again. I wasn’t thinking of going out and winning them, by any means. If I won them, it would have been fantastic, because there were 92 grand or something like that on offer, that would have been nice pocket change, wha’!”

Kellie Harrington was speaking at the launch the SPAR Christmas Community Fund, where 10 local community mentors have the chance to win €1,000 each for their club or community group.