{"id":355847,"date":"2025-08-19T04:03:18","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T04:03:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/355847\/"},"modified":"2025-08-19T04:03:18","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T04:03:18","slug":"why-we-may-not-have-seen-the-last-of-kellie-harrington-in-the-boxing-ring-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/355847\/","title":{"rendered":"Why we may not have seen the last of Kellie Harrington in the boxing ring \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kellie Harrington<\/a> has not retired from boxing and continues to train with the rest of the Irish boxers at Ireland\u2019s High Performance Unit (HPU) in the Sport Ireland Campus. <\/p>\n

The double Olympic gold medal winner remains in the Irish system and continues to be an important part of an Irish boxing program, that has qualified 10 male and seven female boxers to compete in Liverpool at the World Championships beginning on September 4th.<\/p>\n

Harrington, however, is not participating at the World Championships and is not part of the travelling Irish squad.<\/p>\n

Harrington became the first Irish woman to successfully defend an Olympic gold medal when she won the lightweight title in Tokyo 2020 and again in Paris last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, I don\u2019t want to raise any speculation on Kellie\u2019s future,\u201d said Irish boxing\u2019s Performance Director Jon Mackey. \u201cShe has publicly declared that she may not box again. But whether she does or not is to be seen. But I look forward to having that conversation with her.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is still in the system. She hasn\u2019t officially retired and she is training away on an individually tailored program. She is still very much a part of what we do in the High Performance Unit. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe long-term plans for Kellie? We haven\u2019t spoken about that just yet and we may do towards the end of the year once we get the World Championships out of the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harrington is just the third woman to retain an Olympic boxing title after Britain\u2019s Nicola Adams and USA\u2019s Claressa Shields. Women\u2019s boxing was introduced to the Olympic roster for the first time at London 2012.<\/p>\n

She announced her international retirement immediately after winning her second gold in the home of French tennis at Roland Garros last summer. <\/p>\n

\"KellieKellie Harrington with her gold medal during the national anthem after winning the women’s 60kg final at the Paris Olympics last year. Photograph: James Crombie\/Inpho <\/p>\n

But Irish boxing has clearly given Harrington space and left the door open if she decides to make a return to the competitive arena. The next Olympic Games are in Los Angeles in 2028, when she will be 38-years-old.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if Kellie wasn\u2019t a double Olympic gold medallist she still would be great to have around,\u201d said Mackey. \u201cShe brings a unique energy to the place. She is an incredibly hard worker. She sets a high standard for herself and is an incredible role model for both male and female boxers who have come into the Olympic program. <\/p>\n

\u201cShe is an absolute pleasure to have around. She is very much part of what we do and it\u2019s important that she stays around a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The World Championships in Liverpool are the first to be staged by the new world governing body, World Boxing, after years of rancour and division in the sport.<\/p>\n

World Boxing split from the previous Russia-aligned International Boxing Association (IBA), which the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had refused to recognise because of financial and governance irregularities. <\/p>\n

Boxing also suffered from inconsistent refereeing and after the 2016 Olympics in Rio an investigation showed judging and refereeing was corrupt. <\/p>\n

Ireland\u2019s Michael Conlan publicly accused the Rio judging panel and the governing body of corruption after Russia\u2019s Vladimir Nikitin was given a shocking decision over the Irishman.<\/p>\n

The outcome was later called into question by an independent report that found evidence of manipulation of the results, with Conlan\u2019s fight being among those deemed suspicious.<\/p>\n

\"Ireland’sIreland\u2019s Michael Conlan after his fight against Russia’s Vladimir Nikitin at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Photograph: Dan Sheridan\/Inpho <\/p>\n

\u201cAll the attention from a media perspective and from the national federations is going to be looking closely at how the judging and officiating is going to unfold,\u201d said Mackey.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving said that, World Boxing has recently launched a new format and the Asian confederation ran it for the first time. There is a judging oversight committee now in place, so they monitor the behaviour and actions of officials during the actual event. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere is an extra layer of oversight and accountability now in place. That\u2019s very positive and when that is rolled out over all of the international events, I think there will be a large sigh of relief.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWorld boxing knows it was one of the key issues around the previous international federation. They know the spotlight is on them. They know people will be watching them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Irish team has departed for Sheffield for a multi-nations camp ahead of the World Championships, where over 500 boxers from 60 countries will take part.<\/p>\n

It will be the first time ever that male and female boxers have competed in Olympic-style boxing for the World Boxing Champion title at the same event and will be the biggest boxing event to take place in Britain since the London Olympics.<\/p>\n

The draw will take place on September 3rd with the boxing beginning the following day with preliminary bouts. Finals will be run over two days on September 13th and 14th.<\/p>\n

Irish team<\/b><\/p>\n

Women: 51kg <\/b>Daina Moorehouse, Enniskerry BC, Co Wicklow; 54kg <\/b>Jenny Lehane, DCU Boxing Club, Dublin; 57kg<\/b> Michaela Walsh, Holy Family Golden Gloves BC, Belfast; 60kg<\/b> Zara Breslin, Tramore BC, Co Waterford; 65kg<\/b> Grainne Walsh, St Mary\u2019s BC, Tallaght, Dublin; 70kg<\/b> Lisa O\u2019Rourke, Castlerea BC, Co Roscommon; 75kg<\/b> Aoife O\u2019Rourke, Castlerea BC, Co Roscommon<\/p>\n

Men: 50kg<\/b> Louis Rooney, Star BC, Belfast; 55kg<\/b> Patsy Joyce, Olympic BC, Mullingar, Co Westmeath; 60kg<\/b> Adam Hession, Monivea BC, Co Galway; 65kg<\/b> Dean Clancy, Sean McDermott BC, Co Leitrim; 70kg<\/b> Matthew McCole, Illies Golden Glove BC, Co Donegal; 75kg<\/b> Gavin Rafferty, Dublin Docklands Boxing Club, Dublin; 80kg<\/b> Kelyn Cassidy, Saviours Crystal BC, Co Waterford; 85kg<\/b> Brian Kennedy, St Brigid\u2019s BC, Edenderry, Co Offaly; 90kg<\/b> Jack Marley, Monkstown BC, Dublin; 90+kg <\/b>Martin McDonagh, Galway BC, Galway<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kellie Harrington has not retired from boxing and continues to train with the rest of the Irish boxers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355848,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4108],"tags":[1935,125462,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-355847","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-kellie-harrington","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115053448758196917","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}