Only girl in the world

Everyone has their story. Here’s mine…

On August 9, 2012, I was working from home in my cottage in Dublin city, or at least I was supposed to be. I reckon I was about halfway through writing up an interview just like this one, only the pretty, brown-eyed boxer from Bray was a pretty, brown-eyed, globetrotting guitarist from Ohio with an armful of international hit singles under his belt. I had just gotten to the part where Johnny Depp joins the band on stage for a very public jam session, but nothing, not even the hottest man on planet earth, could keep me away from the telly come 4.45pm.
Like countless other Irish men and women perched on the edge of their sofa that day, I was a newcomer to the world of women’s boxing, but the 26-year-old Irish-born European and World champion had proved so charismatic, I became an expert in days. I laughed to hear Rihanna’s ‘Only Girl In The World’ blasting over the PA as Katie Taylor was led into the ring – not exactly Rocky’s ‘Gonna Fly Now’, but a surprisingly fitting choice by the ExCeL Arena’s sound engineer nonetheless.
I watched Katie trade punches with Russia’s Sofya Ochigava through my fingers, all the while thanking my lucky stars that I wasn’t the one fielding those beastly blows. When she dropped to her feet as Olympic champion, I sprang to mine, devastated to remember that there was nobody around to hug. Luckily, my neighbours were already congregating outside for a celebratory gossip, at least the ones who didn’t journey out to Bray to take in the fight in Katie’s home town.
My story is by no means a particularly good one; the days following the fight brought plenty of those. The backpacker in a hostel in Bratislava whose friends all flew home without him, the New York ex-pat who had his dad describe the entire fight down the phone, the farmer who watched from a silage pit somewhere in the countryside. A delirious Seán Bán Breathnach sobbed his way through the commentary on Raidió na Gaeltachta. “Honestly, folks,” he said, as Gaeilge, “I’ve been a commentator for 40 years but this has touched my heart more than anything... anything in my whole life.”
Of course, one woman’s story trumps them all.
“It was just the best moment of me life, really,” Taylor says, now calm, composed and dressed top-to-toe in Adidas for an event in Dundrum’s Lifestyle Sports. “I knew that the last round was very, very close and you never really know what way the judges are scoring, but I think me Dad was very confident in the corner. There was such a big delay before the announcement, I didn’t know what was going on but I think you could hear a pin drop on the stage at that moment.
‘When me hand was raised it was just, ‘Thank God!’ The whole crowd was going mad and it was a big relief. There was so much pressure on me throughout the whole competition and the thought that I’d finally become an Olympic champion… that moment was complete joy. I don’t think I’ve ever heard ‘Amhrán na bhFiann’ sung so loudly before. It was unbelievable.”
Next, congratulations poured in from Oscar De La Hoya, Evander Holyfield, Lennox Lewis, Katie’s own childhood heroine Sonia O’Sullivan and, for whatever reason, Samuel L. Jackson. Liam Neeson even phoned her up for a post-match chat (“I didn’t know what to be saying to him on the phone!” she laughs).
Xposé aired a special segment on how to get the perfect Katie Taylor ponytail. Finglas rapper Temper-Mental Miss Elayneous penned a song, ‘Step In The Ring’ inspired by Katie’s success. A small pomeranian in Swords donned a frankly ridiculous boxing costume, complete with tiny red gloves.
Katie even features in Roddy Doyle’s new book Two Pints, with one pub-dweller saying to another; “Did yeh ever think watchin’ a girl boxin’ the head off another girl would make yeh feel so proud?” She’ll also have her own book entitled My Olympic Dream, written with Irish Times journalist Johnny Watterson, published in time for Christmas.
But Taylor’s Olympic Dream doesn’t end here, and it didn’t start here, either.

Katie and I are due to meet in the locker room above Lifestyle Sports, where a few hundred fans have gathered to hear her talk about that gorgeous medal of hers.
A comically stocky, ponytailed bouncer keeps me company as I wait in the hall outside, probing me to wonder why a powerhouse like Taylor even needs a great hulking security goon around.
“Whatcha reckon?“ I joke. “Could you take her?“
Nothing. He probably isn’t even himself.
When I finally get to shake Katie’s hand, a funny thought strikes me. I’m half a foot taller and a couple of stone heavier, but in the unlikely event that I say something to piss her off, this girl could pummel me to a bloody pulp and still have one arm free to sign autographs.
Facing this 60kg firecracker in the ring suddenly becomes my worst nightmare, but outside of it, Katie is anything but threatening. Clocking my Adidas track top, she shoots me a huge smile. She’s strikingly pretty, surprisingly petite, unbelievably soft-spoken, and clearly very used to excitable idiots like myself trying to find out everything there is to know about her.
“My God, how are you?” I bellow, not even slightly attempting to contain my excitement.
“It’s still a bit mad since I got home,” she smiles, “but I can’t complain really. It’s been great, such a privilege being Olympic champion, it’s all part and parcel of it. It’s calmed down quite a bit, I’m back to training now as well, so things are much calmer.”
So, back to normal… ish!
“Yeah, ish! Exactly!”
It can’t be easy for Katie to keep a level head when everyone in the country wants their own intrusive question answered, from what she has for breakfast (Crunchy Nut Cornflakes and Actimel) to what movies she watches (“I like looking at gangster films like Goodfellas,” she says, “I feel like a gangster when I watch them!”) to what’s on her iPod (Snow Patrol, The Script, Christy Moore, The Wolfe Tones, Rihanna and Beyoncé).
“It’s a bit surreal, to be honest,” she says, although her expression gives it away. “I don’t really think about it too much.”
Sitting in the press conference room of the ExCeL on the evening of August 9, Katie stressed that she hoped the Olympic gold medal wouldn’t change her life, at least not the part that allows her to walk her dogs or go to the cinema.
“Things have stayed the same,” she assures me, two months later, “at home, with me friends as well, things are completely the same, so we are trying to keep things as normal as possible.”
The other half of that “we” is missing from our interview, although I did spot Katie’s dad Peter running around outside, helping fans take pictures with the gold medal around their necks.
The former amateur boxer has become a household name as Katie’s right-hand man, having given up his job as an electrician to coach his daughter to victory.
He gave Katie her very first pair of gloves when she was ten years old, but the champion boxer maintains that her Olympic dream started long before that.
“As far back as I can remember, really,” she muses. “I’ve always dreamed of becoming an Olympic champion, that was even before I knew which sport it was going to be. I just knew that there was an Olympic Champion inside of me. I think that was just a dream or a design that God put in me heart really, so I was trying to work hard throughout me whole life.
‘There wasn’t a day that went by where I didn’t think about becoming an Olympic Champion, throughout my whole childhood. It’s really what got me out of bed and inspired me every single day.”
Getting out of bed is one thing, training twice a day, six days a week, 52 days a year is another entirely.
“It’s very, very long hard days,” Katie admits, “it’s always really, really tough, really intense. I absolutely love what I’m doing and it’s a pleasure to be training, to be doing what I’m doing every week… and obviously all the other sacrifices I’ve been making as well. If I didn’t make sacrifices, I wouldn’t be sitting here now.”
As much as I’d love to get my hands on that delightful Olympic bling, something tells me I wouldn’t last five minutes at one of Taylor’s sessions.
“In the mornings, it’d be either a running session or a weight session. Running sessions are the worst part of training for me, I absolutely hate running with a passion.”
Surely Peter joins in the fun?
“No, he just stands there with the timer and the whistle!” she laughs, “I’d be nearly crying running around, cursing him running around, but that’s probably the toughest part of training for me is the running sessions. The gym sessions are the most enjoyable for me, straight boxing, shadow boxing and sparring, that’s always the most enjoyable part.”
And the laundry at the end of a week’s worth of work-outs? Who takes care of that?
“I think me mam does all that for him, and for me! It’s a huge family affair for us, really. My mam does all the cooking for me, so when I come in from training she just hands me me food, a lot of vegetables and chicken or salmon.”
Katie’s adamant that she couldn’t have won gold if it wasn’t for her family’s support; in fact, the numbers show that she hasn’t performed as well on occasions when Taylor Sr. couldn’t travel to competitions.
“My da has hundreds and hundreds of videos,” she says. “I don’t think anyone else studies the videos as much. My da is probably the most meticulous man ever about planning programmes, I feel like every time I go into a competition I’m always ahead of the boxer in every competition, he just has everything prepared for me before fights.”
Peter is often asked about sending his little girl into the ring, how he feels knowing that she might have her nose broken any minute, but it seems like Katie is just as concerned for her Dad as he is for her.
“It’s difficult for me da watching me boxing,” she sighs. “He’s nervous for me going into fights. It’s because we’re so close and we have such a great relationship. He studies everything so, so much and I’m always going into the ring the best prepared.”

As if becoming the greatest athlete in the sport wasn’t enough, a young Katie Taylor had another mountain to climb. “
When I was growing up, everyone was against women’s boxing,” she tells me.
In the ’90s, the idea of allowing young women into a boxing ring to fight each other was seen as brutish, degrading or – perish the thought! – unladylike. Now, a quick click brings me to a professional boxing forum where fans from all around the world dubbed the women’s boxing at London 2012 far superior to the men’s, praising Katie in particular and calling her a “superstar”.
Taylor first made boxing history aged 15, beating 16-year-old Alanna Audley of Belfast 32-12 in the first officially sanctioned women’s bout ever held in Ireland. Since then, she’s done everything in her power to build on the sport’s popularity, even taking part in demonstration fights to help persuade the International Olympic Committee to add women’s boxing to the agenda for this year’s games.
In the meantime, she added five European championship and four World championship titles to her résumé, giving her plenty of practice at dealing with pre-fight nerves.
“I always find it so hard to sleep at night before a fight, just thinking about things.” she admits, “I find it so hard to switch off.”
With Olympic glory drawing closer and closer, Taylor refused to show signs of pressure. As one banner on St. Stephen’s Green so eruditely summed it up, only the strongest shoulders can carry the hopes of a nation.
“We tried to approach it like any other competition really, in terms of our preparation,” she says. “But definitely, I didn’t experience pressure like that before. The whole country was behind me, I think there was 9,000 Irish people in London and I didn’t want to let anyone down. That was the first time really that I felt that kind of pressure before a fight.”
Later, at the Lifestyle Sports Q&A, she fields a question about her pre-match ritual.
“I always do the same thing after the weigh-in. I go for some breakfast and go for a walk with me da and we just chat a small bit about the fight and what I have to deal with. Then afterwards, I really try and stay at my best and listen to the same songs.”
Such as?
“Worship songs really, not very exciting. Not ‘Eye Of The Tiger’ or nothing,” she laughs. “That’s probably the most important part of me preparation, just getting me head focused.”
Like her skills in the ring, Katie’s religious beliefs come naturally, but they also involve, if you’ll excuse the pun, a hell of a lot of work. Her parents are both Christians, and although many heads were turned when she told journalists “I’m here because of the grace of God,” after her fight on August 9, she’s never played down her religious leanings.
Taylor attends mass every week at St. Mark’s Pentecostal Church on Pearse St. and keeps calm before competitions by reading passages from the bible (her favourite is the one that goes, “The Lord is my rock, and my fortress…” ) She also says prayers with her mum Bridget before every fight, although she quickly laughs off suggestions that she’s praying for the safety of her opponent.
“Me and me mam always pray that I’m able to perform to the best of me ability, but when I’m praying myself, it’s probably a completely different thing! I’m ruthless when I’m praying!”
It’s easy to forget that behind that girl-next-door image, there’s a woman who wants to knock her opponent out cold in a single swing. Surely that must be difficult in itself, figuring out whether she’s a relentless animal or the people’s princess?
“I just try to be myself,” she shrugs. “I don’t really go with what the stereotypes are saying. I don’t get influenced by any of that and I’ve never been influenced by what society wants.”
Generally what society wants from a female celebrity is that she looks immaculate every time she steps outside the front door. Katie, who’s already admitted that her mam does most of her clothes shopping, refuses to think in those terms.
“Obviously every time you go out you want to look your best,” she says, “that’s just natural, so I try to look my best any time I go out to an awards ceremony or anytime I go for a night out, not because there cameras are there, but because you want to feel that way. That’s it, really.”

It’s tough not to romanticise a story like Katie Taylor’s. But if anything is going to convince me that she’s the perfect role model for her fellow countrymen and women, it’s watching her interact with fans. The constant chatter does get a bit much, she admits (“I haven’t talked really in the last three weeks, it’s been great!”). Of course, it comes with the territory.
“It’s a little bit more difficult going to the cinema with me friends,” she says, “people are looking for photos. I have no problem with doing that as it only takes five seconds. It’s just great hearing all the stories from people, telling you where they were when they seen the fights, telling you what they were doing and how everyone went crazy. It’s so encouraging listening to their stories and everyone seems to be so happy for me. The support that I got from people, young to old, in the last few weeks has just been incredible. You’d only get something like this in Ireland, I think.”
The Irish certainly proved that we have the most powerful lungs; the decibel level during Taylor’s August 7 fight with Natasha Jonas hit 113.7, a noise not far off that of a jet engine.
“It’s deadly!” she laughs. “With or without drink we’re exceptionally loud! It wasunbelievable, and that was when we were boxing against the English girl! I thought, ‘The English are going to have so much support here,’ but it was just incredible. I couldn’t believe it, like. When I walked out, I thought, ‘What is going on?’ We have the best fans in the world!”
And if anyone needs cheering up at the moment – tiny violins at the ready! – it’s the Irish.
“I know quite a few families going through a hard time,” Taylor points out, “people losing jobs and stuff like that. I live on a council estate, and there are so many families even in that estate that are going through hard times. It’s great to give them something to cheer them up so that they can forget their problems, even for a few minutes.”
Of course, the impact of Katie’s triumph didn’t stop on August 9. Taylor’s inaugural gold medal win has had an immeasurably positive effect on the Irish people, many of whom are still thinking, ‘Well, if Katie can do it…”
“It’s amazing, you know, feeling that we’ve inspired people,” she smiles. “I think we’re on this planet to leave a mark on this generation of people and that’s what we all should be looking for. It’s great to be a world-changer, to be a history-maker, it’s amazing to think that you’re inspiring young people, even some of the young boxers, and there are so many girls getting into it now, they’re all getting a great start. I’m hoping they can stick at it and we’ll make some great stars for the future.”
Shortly after our interview, Taylor announced her decision to remain in the amateur game, rather than sign any of the eye-bulging professional contracts she’d been offered, rumoured to be worth hundreds of thousands of euro. Trite as it sounds, it wasn’t about the money for Katie, it was about fulfilling her most important role; giving this nation of moaners and begrudgers something to yelp, cheer and tell stories about.
Taylor told me, “During the Olympic Games, for me and all the lads who brought home silver medals, the Paralympians as well, it was just great for the whole country to give them that bit of hope. We’re all destined for greatness, really. We all have greatness inside of us.
“I think I am really a testament that if there are dreams that you have got in your heart, they can be fulfilled. I want everyone to know that any dreams that they have in their heart are worth making happen, if you just continue to drive on and work for them. Nothing’s impossible.”

Adidas ambassador Katie Taylor visited the newly refitted Lifestyle Sports store at Dundrum Town Centre, to meet a group of lucky prize-winners as part of an exclusive event. Thanks to Adidas, the 20 winners had the opportunity to meet Katie for an exclusive Q&A session as she spoke to them about her Olympic experience and the brand new women’s fitness range.