Katie Taylor interview

As Olympic champ Katie Taylor accepts the gold medal after beating Russian opponent Sofya Ochigava, we look back two years - when we met the Bray boxer and awarded her our Hot Press 'Sportsperson of the Year', 2010 award...

24-year-old Katie Taylor from Bray, County Wicklow, is our main contender for a Gold in the next Olympics. Former captain of the Irish soccer team (with whom she’s won 40 caps), Taylor has held her position as the world’s top female boxer for the last three years. Now, with women’s boxing having been included as an official sport for the first time in the history of the Olympics for London 2012, it’s time to fasten your seatbelts. Katie’s all set to take us on a rollercoaster ride.
I meet the exceptionally grounded, beautiful, almond-eyed athlete for a chat in a hotel along the seafront in Bray. Her father and coach, Pete Taylor, who emerges as one of the best male espousers of the feminist cause that I’ve ever met, sits in on the interview.

Adrienne Murphy: When did you first know, Katie, that you wanted to box?
Katie Taylor: It was always in my family with my dad boxing. My two brothers were boxing as well. My mother was the first female boxing judge in the country. The minute I walked into St Fergal’s Boxing Club in Bray, when I was 10 years of age, I loved it. There was something great about getting into the ring and one-on-one combat. I always messed around in the house before that, with the gloves on, with my two brothers and my dad. I already knew how to throw a punch before I even went to the boxing club.
Is your sister into boxing as well?
She was into more normal girl stuff. I was a tomboy when I was growing up.
Are there female boxers who are into girls’ stuff?
Oh yeah, there are plenty who are really girly girls outside of the ring. With me, I was more into soccer and other sporty things.
As a girl starting boxing, were you worried about hurting somebody or getting hurt yourself?
Not at all. When you’re in the ring, it’s a sport, so you’re not going in there trying to kill one another. It’s a skill, and you have to think about everything you’re doing. And if you’re getting hurt, there’s always someone there to stop the fight.
What sort of injuries have you sustained?
I’ve got a broken nose before.
Pete Taylor (Katie’s dad and coach): She got another one last Monday.
But that’s just boxing.
PT: Katie’s getting pushed every day of the week because she’s in sparring every day of the week, so broken noses are inevitable. It’s a combat sport. When she went for the x-ray the first time it happened badly, three or four years ago, it showed she’d had two or three breaks already.
I didn’t even know about them.
Is it painful, getting your nose broken?
The initial punch is always really sore, but not as bad as people think. It sounds a lot worse than it is. It’s a spot of blood, and there’s difficulty breathing-wise, but you can always carry on. It’s upsetting though, when it happens. For a girl, I think, to have a broken nose is a lot worse than a man having a broken nose. If a man has a broken nose it adds character to his face, but it’s not the same for a girl…
But your nose is fine, and you’re so pretty, you really don’t have anything to worry about…
It is a bit crooked though… When it does happen, you’re gutted over it, but you just have to get on with things.
PT: I think it affects me a lot. With Katie being a girl, we don’t want to see her walking around with her nose like that. And it’s not great for female boxing, is it, that they look beat up? If a lad has a broken nose, big deal, nobody cares. Like on the Irish boxing team the lads would’ve had competitions as to whose nose is the worst. But it’s different for a girl. It’s a hard part of the sport.
Saying that, if I have to get a broken nose on my way to winning a world title, then so be it. I’d much prefer to have the titles and a broken nose along with it if that has to be the case.
Has the desire to win always been a really strong streak in you?
I’ve always been really competitive since I was a child. In every sport, I always wanted to be the best. I was always really focussed as a child. I think most of the other kids were there mainly for the fun, whereas I just wanted to win each competition.
How did you manage to practise for women’s boxing, when there weren’t any other girls around at the time to box?
My first female fight in Ireland wasn’t until I was 15. But there’s a lot more women boxers now in the country, so I think a lot of girls have got female sparring partners. But since I was one of the first female boxers in Ireland, I’ve grown up sparring with the lads and training with the lads.
Has that benefitted you?
I think it has. Obviously men are naturally stronger and faster than women, so I think it’s important for every female athlete to train with men. It’s only going to make you better.
Does it ever annoy you, as a competitive sportswoman, that men are physically stronger and faster than women?
That’s just the way it is. It doesn’t make men better than women. They’re just naturally stronger than women. And women compete against women, so if I’m the best woman in the world that’s just as good as a man being the best man.
But the sports media doesn’t exactly reflect that truth…
Not at all. I think for every female athlete, it’s always much harder to get the recognition they deserve. It’s in every sport.
Is that starting to change?
I’m getting a bit of recognition now. It’s been a long time coming. I mean, I’m on my third world title this year, and I’m only starting to get some recognition over the last year or so.
Has that rankled a bit?
It can be frustrating, but I tend not to think about it too much. Just concentrate on my training.
PT: You see it if you look at the European running championships. In athletics they’re all talking about David Gillick, and nobody was talking about Derval O’Rourke. She doesn’t get much publicity and neither does Gráinne Murphy the swimmer, but if it was a male swimmer or a male runner, they’d be all over the place.
Why?
It’s a man’s world.
PT: I think what happens is that a lot of male sports editors look down on women’s sport. Look at the Arsenal women’s team. If you’re into soccer and you watch them play, they’re absolutely brilliant to watch. But men just won’t give them the time. Probably because the women are better… (Laughs).
Did you ever come across discrimination in training?
No. My dad was always the coach at the boxing club anyway, so I think that helped! But I never felt out of place. They just treated me like a normal boxer. And in the High Performance Unit of the Irish team, I’m just be like any other boxer there. It’s never been a big deal for me to be there.
Do you see other girls coming up in the sport now, who might be ten years behind you?
Yeah, there’s a few girls in my own club and around the country that have great talent and potential. But I suppose I’d be the first woman boxer here, so I want to be a great role model to those girls. It’s a big responsibility, and I take it very seriously.
Have there been any Irish women boxers before you?
There was a girl called Deirdre Gogarty, but there wasn’t any female boxing in Ireland when she was boxing, so she had to move to America and turn pro. Nobody knows about her at all, but she was one of the best female pros at the time. She was brilliant, a world professional champion. She’s in her late 30s now. I’ve met her, and she’s a beautiful woman, a lovely, lovely person. She couldn’t compete here. Amateur women’s boxing wasn’t allowed in the country at the time. She won world professional titles; she boxed all the top girls around. She’s head of the boxing commission in Philadelphia now.
When was women’s boxing allowed in Ireland?
2001 was when the first female fight happened here. My dad fought for it really hard for a few years.
What was the resistance?
PT: Just discrimination. It was the same resistance they had when females started playing soccer. When Katie started doing well in tournaments away, they had to recognise it. Then Gary Keegan, who was in the High Performance Unit for elite athletes in boxing, he came on board and wanted to put Katie on a programme. And the Irish Sports Council, in all fairness to them, included Katie in a programme even though women’s boxing wasn’t yet an Olympic sport. The Irish Sports Council have been really supportive. Everything we’ve asked for, the Council have backed us with, since Katie started boxing internationally. If we hadn’t had their support it would’ve been very difficult. It was some battle before! I mean, we were paying for girls to come in and box Katie.
I presume the reasons given for disallowing women’s boxing previously were that it was unladylike and inappropriate for women to be in combat…
Yeah, and there’s always going to be people who have opinions like that. Regardless of what those people say, women’s boxing is here to stay.
PT: They’ll be in for a shock when they see women’s boxing! Even boxing people, when they see women’s boxing for the first time, at international level, they get a shock at how brilliant it is.
People don’t realise how high the standard is in women’s boxing. So seeing women boxing for the first time in the Olympics will be very eye-opening.
What an exciting time to be in women’s boxing, at the very start of it!
Yeah, it is. We were at a pivotal point. We were told that it would definitely be included in Beijing 2008, but it wasn’t. If it wasn’t for the Olympics in 2012, I think women’s boxing may have fallen apart. You need the Olympics there supporting it. Boxing was the only sport in the Olympics that women weren’t competing in! They had to include it in the end. There was so much battling going on, and every female boxer was trying so hard to get into the Olympics over the last few years. So there would’ve been uproar if they hadn’t let us in this time around.
Do people have a stereotype of women boxers?
Yes they do. And I think it’s very important for female boxers to be feminine outside the ring.
How do you go about doing that?
I suppose by being ladylike, and by dressing up when I’m going on a night out. I like to look well.
What about breaking away from your family and classic teenage rebellion? Is that something that you just haven’t experienced?
As a family we’re very close and we do everything together. And I suppose, with my dad as my coach, we’d be very close. I’d be lost without my family, so I’ve never gotten the urge to break away from them. I think a lot of it is to do with boxing, but also we were brought up as Christians, and we know how important it is to have a great family around you. I don’t know where it came from, but we’ve always been a really close-knit family.
What about other teenager stuff, like experimenting with intoxicants?
I’ve never had any desire to drink, and I still don’t drink to this day. I’ve never even tried it. My friends are great, great people and great friends, and they just accept the way I am, so they don’t pressurise me. They always knew how important my sport was to me.
Is the decision not to drink sports-related, or is it to do with your moral values?
I think it’s a bit of both. There’s no point in having a hard week’s training and then going out drinking at the weekend. And growing up as a Christian has influenced my decision as well. My parents don’t drink. My oldest brother and sister drink moderately. I’ve nothing against people drinking. There’s no harm in having a sociable drink now and then, but I’ve just never been into that.
Binge drinking is considered so normal in our culture, and many teenagers are initiated as a matter of course…
Sometimes it’s a pity we can’t celebrate anything without drinking! That’s the way our culture is. I don’t like the idea of waking up with a hangover or waking up not knowing what I did the night before. I’ve seen some of my friends doing silly things when they’re drunk, and they’re just completely out of character when they’re drunk. They do things that they normally wouldn’t do. Every time we’re on a night out, you see people making a mess of things, and it doesn’t look nice.
Do you feel that you’ve missed out as a teenager and young adult because you have to be so dedicated?
You do have to sacrifice a lot of things. I suppose I haven’t really got much of a social life coming up to competitions, because I’m busy training and I have to go to bed early… And then on my rest days, I have to rest, so I haven’t got much time to go see my friends. But it’s not something that I regret; that’s my life and my lifestyle now. I do have to sacrifice a lot, but I’m very blessed with the life that I have been given, to be doing something that I love every day. I can’t be whinging about that!
Your life as a teenager has been so different to the majority of girls your own age. Do you have any friends who are as comparably devoted to a sport?
I have a few friends from the Irish women’s soccer team. But my friends from school weren’t that into sport, and I like that too, because when I’m with my friends I don’t want to talk about boxing or sport, I just want to have a normal conversation. And it’s nice to get away from boxing for a few days when I am with my friends.
Is there any time for romance?
Not really, no. I suppose I’m not out enough to meet any new men. As I said, I rarely get to see my friends even. So I’ve never really had time for boyfriends. But maybe some day I will. Who knows what will happen in the next few years?
Has there been any room to develop other interests?
Not really. I just have to focus on my sport. I’d love to go back to college after I eventually finish boxing. I was doing an arts degree in UCD but I had to drop out. It was too hard to fit my training in along with the studying. At the moment I’m learning Irish; I’d love to be able to speak my own language. It’s a hard language to learn! I’m not really getting the hang of it yet.
Apart from having sparred so much with boys from an early age, what else gives you the edge over other women boxers?
With my dad as my coach, he always has my best interests at heart. He doesn’t put any pressure on me, he just wants me to enjoy my boxing. Also I wouldn’t be sitting here as the World Champion if I hadn’t got God in my life, or the church that I go to.
So what do you perceive God to be?
I’ve always just believed in the Word of God. The Bible is my main thing. I get a lot of strength and confidence from it, and from going to church every Sunday. The worship songs are just so encouraging and uplifting. I think boxing is what I was born to do. Everyone has gifts and talents, and that’s what God wants you to do. I think it puts a big smile on God’s face when you’re doing what you were born to do. Prayer is a big thing for us, we’re constantly praying. I think Christianity is about having a personal relationship with God more than anything else. If you stay close to God, and trust God with everything, that’s the main thing.
Do you do any mental training?
I don’t really do any mental work, I just train and then in between sessions I rest, and then train again. As I said, the Word of God, that’s my psychology book really. For direction and guidance in life, I find the Bible is the way to go.
Is it more open in women’s boxing compared to the rest of society to be out if you’re lesbian?
There are a lot of gay people involved in women’s sport. Not just in boxing, but in all kinds of sport. But I don’t know if it’s a higher proportion than in other areas; in today’s society, most people are very open about sexuality generally.
Does that openess clash with your religious beliefs, or your belief in the Bible?
No! I have friends who are gay and I love them to pieces. We are who we are at the end of the day.
What’s your feeling just before entering the ring for a fight?
It’s very exciting, and very nerve-wracking. I always find it very hard to sleep the night before a fight; if I get a few hours, that’s good for me. But it’s a great feeling, the adrenaline rush.
Does fear come into it at all?
I suppose there’s always an element of fear when you’re going into the ring. I mean, you’re going into one-on-one combat. It’s not fear of getting hurt, but fear of not performing well. But then again, I have a lot of confidence in my own ability. I suppose when you’re coming up to a competition, so long as you train hard and give it your all in the training, that’s all you can do. I have lost a few fights. I lost one at the start of this year, and I took it really hard. But at the same time, I think it’s a sign of great character when you do come back from a big loss like that. The athletes that I look up to, the likes of Bernard Dunne, Derval O’Rourke and Sonia O’Sullivan, they’re people who’ve had big setbacks in their careers – but have always managed to come back. I’d love to say that I’m as mentally strong as those athletes. It’s part of it, to be able to come back up on top again after a big loss. It’s part of being an athlete – you have highs and lows in your career all the time. I’ve had a taste of coming back from defeat a few times.
PT: Katie’s defeat earlier this year was devastating. For myself, I had to really look at the training and try to adjust it, and look at my own performance in the corner, and not get too stressed out in the corner. But everything happens for a reason.
Without that defeat we wouldn’t have been so well prepared for these world championships. Everything does happen for the best.
PT: And also, just like what Roy Keane said: Nobody died. It’s only a boxing match.
I really like Roy Keane, he’s one of my favourite players of all time. He’s not so good as a manager though! But as a soccerer he was brilliant. He always had a winner’s attitude.
Which athlete has been your main inspiration?
Sonia O’Sullivan when I was growing up. I don’t think there’s ever been an Irish athlete like her. I’ve met her a few times, and she’s lovely, really down to earth, really easy to talk to. She’s so strong-minded as well, to come back from the setbacks that she’s had. She was very supportive towards me when I met her.
Do you have to tap into anger to fight well?
Not at all. I think if you’re angry, that’s when you make stupid mistakes. If you’re too aggressive, that’s when you get caught out. It is a thinking match in the ring all the time – you have to think about everything you do. The sport is highly technical. I’m always really focused in the ring, so anger isn’t a problem for me. There’s been a few times when I’ve been boxing that my opponents have tried to make me angry, but I’ve never succumbed to it. I just stayed calm and kept going with my boxing. They’d be saying stupid horrible things in the ring. In the European Championships a few months ago I was boxing against a Czech girl who got disqualified in the end, because she kept talking to me in the ring, saying the girls’ names who’ve beaten me in the past, and boxing with her hands down, and being unsportsmanlike. I just had to detach myself from it and be the bigger person. I think you have to be gracious in times like that.
Considering how low many of us are feeling at the moment because of our economy, you’re going to be a major positive focus for Irish people coming up to the Olympics in 2012. Have you thought about what kind of message you want to give, seeing as you’ll be in the spotlight?
I hope I can help to cheer people up. It’s going to be a hard time for everyone in the next few years; but money doesn’t make you happy at the end of the day. As long you have enough to put food on the table for your family, that’s all that matters. I’m going to try my best to do well and to represent my country in the Olympics. That’s all I can do really: try my best over the next few years.
With what many perceive as our recent loss of economic sovereignty, do you have any sense of embarrassment at the moment as an Irish person on the international stage?
I think Michael Collins must be turning in his grave! It’s going to effect the whole country – all the athletes will be experiencing cuts as well. I’m a patron of the charity Barnardos, and they’ve got a huge number of families going to them at the moment looking for help. The likes of Brian Cowen earning more than Barack Obama – how can you justify that? The ministers making so much money, they don’t know what poor families are going through. They wouldn’t be able to survive if they were trying to live on what poor families are having to make do with. I think change has to start with the government sitting down and being a bit more honest and fair about what they do. But I’m not going abroad with a sense of shame or embarrassment. I’m always very proud to be Irish. Hopefully I can give the country a lift. The country is in a bit of a mess right now, but we will get through it.
As Katie’s dad, have you ever thought to yourself, I wish she’d never gotten into this?
PT: No. Whatever Katie decides to do, we’ll support her, like we support everybody in the family. It is difficult as a father when your daughter is boxing, you’re nervous about her losing, because everybody’s got to lose sometimes. Obviously I’m nervous about her getting hurt, although I’m more nervous about her getting hurt when she spars than when she boxes. I never think about her getting hurt when she boxes. I’m nervous when she’s boxing because I want Katie to win, because when she wins she’s happy. Obviously I’m delighted with what she’s achieved so far. To say I’m delighted is an understatement, because you can’t actually put it into words. It’s been an unbelievable journey. And I don’t think it’s
ended yet!
In fact, it’s only just started. Good luck to Katie Taylor in the Olympics 2012! We’re all behind you!