Boxers previewed in order of Ireland’s Olympic boxing schedule. Bout times are subject to change.
Men’s 63.5kg: Dean Clancy
- Club: Sean McDermott BC
- First bout: Round of 32 v Abada Alkasbeh (Jordan), Saturday 27 July, 4:22pm
Sligo’s first ever Olympic boxer will be first through the ropes for Zaur Antia’s 10-strong Irish team on Saturday, when he faces Jordanian Abada Alkasbeh, a Tokyo Olympian, for a place in the last 16 at light-welterweight.
Dean Clancy, a former European U22 champion and a European bronze medallist in the big-boy ranks last year, will need to win three bouts in Paris if he is to make it to the podium.
Unfortunately, the 22-year-old has been landed with a stinker of a draw: if he can get past Alkasbeh, which would be no mean feat in its own right, Clancy will meet the host nation’s world number one and gold-medal favourite Sofiane Oumiha in the last 16.
Oumiha ended Clancy’s 2023 European Games campaign with a unanimous-decision victory in their semi-final.
Men’s 71kg: Aidan Walsh
- Club: Holy Family GG (Belfast)
- First bout: Round of 32 v Makan Traore (France), Sunday 28 July, 10:30am
Like Clancy, Tokyo bronze medallist Aidan Walsh is up against it at light-middle, where he’ll face a home boxer in Makan Traore in his opening bout.
Whereas the draw opened up for Walsh in Japan three years ago, the 27-year-old will need to win three bouts to return to the podium in Paris.
His road is arguably even more perilous than that of Clancy’s: should Walsh overcome the sticky Traore, he’ll meet the excellent Dane Nicolai Terteryan — who soundly beat Walsh’s domestic rival, Dean Walsh of Wexford, last year — in the last 16. Reigning World Championship gold medallist Asadkhuja Muydinkhujaev of Uzbekistan would likely lie in wait in the last eight.
Women’s 66kg: Gráinne Walsh
- Club: St Mary’s BC (Tallaght)
- First bout: Round of 32 v Anna Luca Hamori (Hungary), Sunday 28 July, 4:22pm
Tullamore native Gráinne Walsh is the potential fairytale story in this Irish team. The 28-year-old former European bronze medallist has crowned an injury-plagued but brilliant career by emerging from Ireland’s bottleneck of world-class talent at welterweight to reach her first Olympics in the final qualifiers in Bangkok last month.
Walsh, who was selected for the final two qualification events over Amy Broadhurst (2022 world champion at 63kg), Lisa O’Rourke (2022 world champion at 70kg) and Christina Desmond (two-time European medallist), will face a 2023 European Games bronze medallist in the shape of Hungary’s Anna Luca Hamori in her opening bout on Sunday.
She’s well capable of beating Hamori, from which point she would face Australia’s Marissa Williamson in the last 16. Walsh’s potential medal bout, were she to make it that far, would likely see her square off with either a familiar face in Algeria’s Imane Khelif (beaten by Kellie Harrington at 60kg in Tokyo and beaten by Broadhurst in their 63kg final a year later), or Italian veteran Angela Carini.
While the path ahead of Walsh still feels long, the road behind her is far longer. At full fitness, she has both the skills and minerals to medal at these Games.
Men’s 92kg: Jack Marley
- Club: Monkstown BC (Dublin)
- First bout: Round of 16 v Mateusz Bereznicki (Poland), Sunday 28 July, 7:32pm
Sallynoggin heavyweight Jack Marley earned silver at last summer’s European Games, qualifying for his first Olympics and earning a seeding in Paris.
As such, Marley, 21, needs to win only two bouts to guarantee at least bronze in the coming days — but he must first negotiate a tough last-16 clash with Poland’s Mateusz Bereznicki.
Incidentally, Bereznicki moved from Poland to England when he was five, and he took up boxing only to avoid the hip-hop dance classes for which his mother signed him up as a child. That transition has gone well: while Bereznicki took home bronze from the same European Games at which Marley earned silver last summer, the Pole does hold a victory over the Dubliner from the European U22s in 2022.
Marley, though, was 19 at the time whereas Bereznicki was 21. The hugely talented Irishman has added plenty of senior experience since and if he can get one over on Bereznicki two years later, he’ll face either 2023 Asian Games gold medallist Davlat Boltaev of Tajikistan or Georgia’s Giorgi Kushitashvili, who is moving up to 92kg from 86 where he won World Championship bronze and European gold.
It will be a tall order for Marley, but the Monkstown man will fancy his chances of making a serious dent in the competition.
Women’s 60kg: Kellie Harrington
- Club: St Mary’s BC (Tallaght)
- First bout: Round of 16, Monday 29 July, TBC
The reigning Olympic lightweight champion is the marginal bookies’ favourite to retain her title, a feat achieved by only one Irish athlete in history: Pat O’Callaghan in the hammer throw in 1928 and 1932.
Of slight concern is that Harrington, 34, suffered her first defeat in three years — or 33 bouts — at the European Championships in April, albeit there was an element of shadow-boxing going on in that tournament given its proximity to these Olympics and its role in the boxers’ respective preparations.
Harrington, who has received a bye into the last 16, will first face either Italy’s Alessia Mesiano or Turkey’s Gizem Ozer, both of whom she has beaten previously.
Then, it would be onto a quarter-final against either the decorated Colombian Angie Valdez, the Kosovan Donjeta Sadiku, or Thailand’s Thanaya Somnuek.
Harrington can’t meet either her Tokyo 2021 final opponent Beatriz Ferreira, or 2016 Olympic champion Estelle Mossely, until the semis. She holds victories over both women.
Harrington at her best beats them all. Harrington below her best gets pipped somewhere along the way. We shall see if she can extend her peak at 34, or if that European Championship defeat to Serbia’s Natalia Shadrina was indicative of a fractional decline in her world-conquering powers.
Women’s 54kg: Jenny Lehane
- Club: DCU BC
- First bout: Round of 16 v Yuan Chang (China), Tuesday 30 July, 11:36am
Jenny Lehane, a former international taekwondo standout, has parked her career in primary-school teaching to pursue her Olympic boxing dream.
A native of Ashbourne, Co. Meath, Lehane began making a name for herself in the High Performance Unit in 2021 and has since become an established international in the ring.
The 25-year-old bantamweight was beaten one stage shy of a medal at last summer’s European Games by eventual champion Stanimira Petrova of Bulgaria, the gold-medal favourite for these Olympics.
Lehane, who received a bye into the last 16, will face China’s former Youth Olympic gold-medal winner and 2018 Asian champion Yuan Chang on Tuesday, with the winner facing the daunting prospect of pitting their wits against the supreme Petrova in the quarters.
Men’s 57kg: Jude Gallagher
- Club: Two Castles Olympic BC
- First bout: Round of 16 v Carlo Paalam (Philippines), Wednesday 31 July, 2:30pm
Tyrone featherweight Jude Gallagher is, on several levels, one of the most exciting male boxing prospects to emerge in Ireland in recent years and if he can find a way to pass his stiff opening test, he’ll have a serious chance of winning a medal.
Gallagher, 22, has received a bye into the last 16 where he’ll face fancied Filipino flag-bearer Carlo Paalam, who beat Ireland’s team captain Brendan Irvine among others en route to Tokyo Olympic silver — but two divisions below, at flyweight.
Paalam, 26, has since won Asian gold at bantam (54kg) but has stepped up once more for these Games to feather, where he hasn’t been quite as consistent as he was in the lighter classes.
The winner of Wednesday’s bout will face either Belgium’s Vasile Ustoroi or Australia’s Charlie Senior for at least bronze and a place in the semis. Either Gallagher or Paalam would expect to win that quarter-final, whatever the eventuality.
One of them is probably going to become an Olympic medallist. The other is definitely going to fall at the first hurdle.
Women’s 75kg: Aoife O’Rourke
- Club: Castlerea BC
- First bout: Round of 16 v Elzibeth Wojcik (Poland), Wednesday 31 July, 8:52pm
Roscommon’s middleweight star has posted a remarkable 27-1 record in competitive bouts since losing a squeaker to China’s Qian Li at the last-16 stage in Tokyo.
O’Rourke’s sole reversal in the three years since came at the hands of American Naomi Graham at the 2022 Worlds, but the Castlerea woman has for years now dominated this side of the Atlantic, winning three consecutive European golds since 2019.
Having received a bye into the last 16 in Paris, O’Rourke will face Poland’s Elzibeth Wojcik, over whom she holds a 4-0 record. However, the Poles were — wrongly, in this writer’s opinion — incensed by O’Rourke’s most recent win over their woman at Strandja earlier this year, where O’Rourke went on to beat Qian Li en route to gold.
They’ll feel Wojcik can finally get one over on the westerner, whereas O’Rourke will have grander plans.
Lying in wait for either woman in the quarters will be one of Panama’s 2014 world champion Athena Bylon or Kazakhstan’s 2016 welterweight world champion Valentina Khalzova, who more recently took World Championship bronze up at this weight (Ireland didn’t enter the 2023 Worlds due to the ongoing political split in amateur boxing).
O’Rourke is, behind Harrington, Ireland’s second best medal chance on paper, but her opening bout with Wojcik is a potential banana skin.
Women’s 50kg: Daina Moorehouse
- Club: Enniskerry BC
- First bout: Round of 16 v Wassila Lkhadiri (France), Thursday 1 August, 7pm
Wicklow’s former glittering underage star Daina Moorehouse will be second last out of the blocks for Ireland when she faces home seventh seed Wassila Lkhadiri in her light-flyweight last-16 contest.
Whereas Moorehouse, 22, is still finding her feet at senior international level, the 28-year-old Lkhadiri is a multiple-time major medallist whose career at this level spans a decade.
But crucially, during their sole past meeting at the quarter-final stage of last summer’s European Games, Lkhadiri was a touch fortunate to earn a split verdict over the diminutive Irishwoman.
That defeat denied Moorehouse immediate qualification for these Games but she will have become further seasoned by having been forced to take the scenic route, and she’ll be confident that she can avenge that defeat where it truly counts next Thursday.
One of Moorehouse and Lkhadiri will face either African champ Roumaysa Boulam of Algeria or Filipino Airo Villegas for at least bronze in their second bout.
Women’s 57kg: Michaela Walsh
- Club: Holy Family GG (Belfast)
- First bout: Round of 16 v Svetlana Staneva (Bulgaria), Friday 2 August, 2:46pm
Now a two-time Olympian like her younger brother Aidan, Michaela Walsh remains one of the most underrated athletes in Irish sport having won eight major international medals over the last decade.
Still, at 31, Walsh is probably not quite the medal chance in Paris as she was in Tokyo three years ago, where she lost a razor-tight opening bout to Italy’s eventual bronze medallist Irma Testa.
That was a killer of a draw for Walsh and this one isn’t much better: she’ll meet Bulgaria’s late-bloomer, reigning European champion Svetlana Staneva, in her last-16 bout at featherweight, the winner of which will progress to face Taiwan’s two-time world champion and three-time Asian champion Lin Yu Ting in a medal bout.
Walsh will have to roll back the years if she is to add some precious metal in Paris to her glistening trophy cabinet.
The 42′s prediction
It’s distinctly possible that they match their record tallies of four medals at the 1956 and 2012 Games, but this writer expects Ireland to take home three boxing medals from Paris:
- Silver: Aoife O’Rourke (Women’s 75kg)
- Bronze: Kellie Harrington (Women’s 60kg)
- Bronze: Jude Gallagher (Men’s 57kg)
- Additional reporting by Joe O’Neill of Irish-boxing.com
