In the ring with Aoife O'Rourke: What it takes to train like an Irish Olympic boxer
Aoife O'Rourke during the Team Ireland Paris 2024 boxing team announcement at the Sport Ireland Institute in Dublin. Pic: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile
IT started with laughter rumbling around Castlerea boxing gym. Aoife O’Rourke was dropped to the door by reluctant parents in search of a place to keep fit for Gaelic football. That spark ignited a flare set to light up the Irish summer.
The 27-year-old is now a four-time European Champion and represented Ireland at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. She is a strong medal contender among the 10 Irish boxers headed for the Paris Games this summer. It is a record-equalling team size.
Not since 1960 have so many Irish boxers qualified. The female boxing team are the only European outfit to qualify six boxers for the six weight divisions. Italy, with a population of 58m, comes closest with five out of six.
O’Rourke will compete in the 75kg weight category. From a low base, she has surged to the pinnacle of the sport.
“I was terrible at first,” she recalls with a smile. “I couldn’t get into the ring without laughing. If someone tried to hit me, we would both start laughing. I don’t really know when I started to take it seriously. It was just for craic.”
O’Rourke praises the benefits of trying a new sport. Her family are devoted Gaelic footballers and she found her sanctuary in the ring.
Her younger sister Lisa is a world champion who just missed out on qualification after an injury-plagued season. Together, they embraced all the hardships of being a professional boxer.
“It was a bit of a push to get my parents to allow me to go. They would have said, ‘Are you sure you want to box? Girls don’t do it.’ I just kept at them and eventually I was like, ‘Collect me at 7pm when I am finished training.’ I am sure they are proud and delighted now that I stuck at it.”
Aoife no longer plays Gaelic football but, to reach the elite conditioning levels required to be an Olympian, she maintains diversity in her training. Not every session is about boxing.
She is a keen CrossFit enthusiast, a gruelling form of training made up of functional movements performed at a high-intensity level.
These circuit-style sessions involve a variety of exercises, such as kipping pullups, a SkiErg, which looks like a rowing machine just for the upper body, leg raises, and Olympic lifts. O’Rourke’s ability in this field is similarly awesome.
HYROX is a booming workout event that takes place in huge indoor spaces worldwide. It is a competitive fitness race combining running and functional fitness.
Each competitor runs a series of 1km loops interspersed with stations testing strength or endurance. O’Rourke entered her first one last October and finished second in her division with an impressive time of 01:12:57.
This style of training can be brutal. That is part of the allure.
“It is a mad sport,” she says. “When things go well and you are on a high, that is why I love it. But when it is the lowest of the lows, you do wonder why you do it. You get a good mixture of emotions with this. But as long as you enjoy it and enjoy what you do, it makes it all worthwhile.
“Low points might come when someone gets the better of you in a spar or you might get an injury. There are good days and bad days. It is all part of the journey.”
The level of success in Irish women’s boxing over the past decade is staggering.
Katie Taylor blazed a trail but several pioneers, including Kellie Harrington, followed and continued to push the bar higher. Irish boxing has had a woman world champion almost every year between 2006 and 2022. The only year there was no champion was between 2016 and 2017.
Harrington, O’Rourke, Daina Moorehouse, Grainne Walsh, Jennifer Lehane and Michaela Walsh will all compete from July 27 to August 10.
Zaur Antia is the current head coach and mastermind behind much of the success Irish boxing has enjoyed in the 21st century. He was a six-time Georgian champion and a bronze medallist at the Soviet Union level.
“When I was a child, my uncle fought all the time,” explains Antia. “Maybe my passion came from that. My friends brought me into the boxing club in Georgia, a small town on the coast of the Black Sea called Poti. That is where I started boxing. I had a very talented coach with really good communication skills. His plan wasn’t just to cultivate a good boxer, it was also to cultivate a good person. For me and for my whole team, that is the main thing.”
There were no female boxers in Georgia and the first time he worked with a woman was when he coached Katie Taylor. “She was very young. We won five world championships. Her father coached with me. Around the same time, I started coaching Kellie Harrington too.”
For Antia, men and women can train using the same principles. The distinction is in how women engage with them. “It is easier with females. They are more intellectual – I am serious. Their nature is different. If they want something, they know it and go for it.”
He sings the praises of O’Rourke. “She is fantastic – a really good athlete. She is working very hard. She is a four-time European champion. She loves hard work and honesty. In a good atmosphere, she prospers.”
For aspiring boxers, Antia stresses that it is never too late to start. He breaks it down into three components that have to be mastered: technical, tactical, and physical.
“Nothing is impossible. My attitude is always if someone can come to me and wants to develop, I will try everything. First, I will see how much they want it and see their strengths and weaknesses.
“If they are 100% committed, I will see how long it takes them to learn. Everything is measurable and everything is possible. It is not easy.”
O’Rourke fell in love with the discipline and control that comes with boxing. In an individual sport, she was the master of her destiny.
In Dublin, every element of her routine is designed to maximise her immense talent. They train from Monday to Friday, anything from two to three sessions per day. The morning starts with a weigh-in and breakfast, typically porridge.
Thriving on the world’s stage doesn’t merely require strength and fitness, it’s also about speed. She trains with a rope ladder across the ground for footwork and utilises a variety of hurdles and boxes for explosiveness.
Even though boxing is an individual pursuit, the Roscommon native explains much of the preparation occurs in a team environment.
The gym is a big family. She lauds the atmosphere in her hometown club of Castlerea, paying particular tribute to coaches Paddy and Helen Sharkey.
“At the end of the day, you are in the ring by yourself but we have a team spirit in training. The atmosphere is great. You are happy to see teammates doing well. We are all training for the same thing. We push each other. We have that support at competitions too.”
Finding an ambitious training partner can do wonders. Aoife found one in her sister.
“Lisa and I train alongside each other,” she says. “If I see her pushing hard, it makes me want to step up too. She definitely pushes me on.”
Boxing is her passion and profession. She still remembers the day a local coach in Castlerea suggested she could qualify for the Olympics. The idea was planted in her head and flourished into a magnificent dream.
With the Olympics on the horizon, she must curtail that. She can’t let it consume her.
“I try to focus when I am in training. Outside of training, I have to let myself breathe and enjoy life. In training, you are training for the event. But at home, away from that, you have to try to relax. Otherwise, it can consume you. I think it is good to have the balance.
“There is a nutritionist with Sports Ireland and they help us stay on track, encourage us on fuel for training. They are a great help but they are big on breaks as well. It is the same with rest and recovery after competitions. They really do enforce no training. When you have a week off, they want you to go and make plans.”
O’Rourke is dedicated to her recovery, which permits her to train harder. A typical recovery session involves ice baths, an infrared jacuzzi, a sauna, and recovery boots.
The same giddy excitement that inspired O’Rourke to push her parents to bring her to Castlerea gym endures. It couldn’t be any other way.
Covid meant her first Olympics was in front of restricted crowds. Soon, she will get to walk out in front of a sizeable travelling support to compete at the summer showpiece.
For this Olympian, the key to success in any sport is to find one you love.
“I think you couldn’t do it at this level if you hated it. I’m enjoying it, really excited and looking forward to Paris.
“Heading there with nine other teammates, it will be amazing.”
- Aoife O’Rourke is a brand ambassador and trains with strength and conditioning specialist Richie Feeney.
- This well-rounded session can be performed in the gym or at home.
- Beginners perform three rounds of each exercise; intermediate, four; advanced, five.
Drop into a fighter stance and throw a jab punch followed by a quick cross in a 1-2 combination.
Boxers typically ‘jab’ with their weaker arm. If left-handed, your right arm will be slightly further forward for the jab.
Lie on your stomach. Exhale and raise your chest off the floor by squeezing your gluteus muscles and contracting your lower back.
Stand with feet shoulder-width apart, toes facing front.
Engage your core, hinge at the hips. Drive the hips back and bend at the knees and ankles.
Drop into a fighter stance and throw a jab punch followed by an uppercut.
Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Engage your core muscles and lift your upper body off the ground.
Extend one arm forward in a punching motion at the top of the sit-up. Alternate arms for each repetition.
Tuck your hip bones toward your belly to increase your abdominal and glute engagement.
Jog on the spot, bringing your knees up waist high.
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