name: Michaela Walsh
Country: Ireland
Sports: Boxing, Featherweight (57kg)
Previous Olympic experience: Tokyo 2021
Social media: Instagram / ×
Who is Michaela Walsh?
Irish amateur boxing regards this spirited fighter from Belfast, Northern Ireland, as one of the best in its proud history, which began when a young Michaela Walsh begged her parents to let her take up the sport because her brother Aidan was already in the ring.
“I gave them a hard time,” she recalled to The Irish News in 2018. “I was a tomboy so we always played football together and had the same amount of friends but there wasn't a lot of women boxing at the time. My dad said he'd like to speak to Sean Canavan, the head coach at the time, and Sean said, 'Of course, beat her'.”
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The rest is amateur history. The 31-year-old Walsh has won 11 Irish national championships, tying him for the most national titles of all time.
At the Tokyo Olympics, she and her brother became the first brother and sister duo to box at the same Olympic Games, and although she was disappointed with her second-round loss, her disappointment was softened by watching her brother achieve his Olympic dream by winning a bronze medal in the welterweight division.
She has won many medals outside of the Olympics, but she has also come close to winning many times. Walsh's Commonwealth Games career is a good example of this, as she reached the finals in 2014 and 2018, losing both times by split decision.
In 2022, that story came to a satisfying conclusion, as Walsh faced Nigeria's Elizabeth Oshoba in the final and dominated the match to win her first Commonwealth Games gold medal.
“I've failed more times than I've succeeded. There were times when I thought this was my destiny, but I had a dream and I stuck to it. I am dedicated to this sport,” she told the Belfast Telegraph after finally winning gold. “When I raised my hand it was like something left me. It was unfinished business.”
Michaela Walsh at the Paris Summer Olympics
Walsh has put all his efforts into qualifying for the 2024 Summer Olympics, having won a bronze medal at the European Games in Krakow, Poland last summer and qualifying for the Paris Games. Walsh will be part of an Ireland team with high expectations, having excelled in every weight class.
Coming up is the featherweight draw, which promises to be one of the most competitive in the entire Olympic boxing tournament. Nesty Petecio of the Philippines, who won silver in Tokyo, is also in the draw, hoping to win gold in her final Olympics. Irma Testa of Italy, who also missed out, is a formidable competitor, having beaten Walsh to win bronze in Tokyo. Testa also holds the IBA World Champion title in this weight class heading into Paris.
The athlete everyone is watching is one Walsh has had some tough challenges against in the past: France's Amina Zidani, who won gold at the 2023 European Games and qualified for the Paris Games a year early.
