Kellie Harrington: There’s greatness in everybody but it's about how we bring that greatness out

At the launch of SPAR Community Road Trip is SPAR ambassador and Olympic boxing champion Kellie Harrington. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

I was born in Dublin 1, and I have three brothers, Christopher, Aaron and Joel and obviously my parents, Yvonne and Christy. I’m the second eldest in the family. Christopher is older than me and then Aaron is under me and then Joel. I went to St Vincent’s Girls National School on North William Street, it’s just around the corner from our house.

What has been my proudest achievement? Qualifying for the Olympic games after coming off the back of an injury and going through a global pandemic. It was really, really tough so I am really proud that I managed to qualify for the games because it was a tough time to qualify for many people and not just myself, but for many people and many of the team [Team Ireland] as well. A lot of hard work went into it. Obviously, we were in the middle of a pandemic, and we did not know whether we were coming or going. We did not know whether things were going to happen, or they weren’t happening or if the Olympics was going ahead or not going ahead, so we had a lot of challenges.

Personally, I think my greatest quality is giving back to people. Just talking to people and it doesn’t have to be actually physically giving them something but just having time for people. People who need that bit of time and when I meet people, if I sense that they need a hug or something, I’ll give it to them. I do feel like that is probably one of my greatest qualities. I’m a very emotionally intelligent person.

Since the Olympics, there are a lot more people who come up to me now and they just tell me a bit about their journey or they might want to tell you where they were when the fight was on - which was more than likely at home because it was all hours of the morning - but that they got up and they watched it and they were with their kids, or their grandkids, and it is nice to hear all of those stories.

I’ve only a few friends but I have a lot of acquaintances and when you reach success, you have got to know the difference between friends and acquaintances really. I obviously turn to my family when I’m looking for advice and Mandy [my wife]. My coach Noel Burke as well. He would be someone that I would look to for some sound advice.

'If I am remembered for being an Olympic champion, that would be great, but I would still rather be remembered for just being a good person. ' Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

I went to college to be a fitness instructor and I did that for a while. I think maybe if I did stick that out, I could possibly have opened a gym. That was something that I was thinking of many years ago – opening up a gym, and I probably wouldn’t be where I am sitting now if I did. Priorities would be different then. So, I would probably have been a gym owner if I did take a different road. A small gym owner.

The greatest advice that I have ever been given or that I could give to someone is basically, to just be yourself and do not change for anybody – unless you’re a bad person and you have to change. Everybody else is already spoken for, so just be yourself and never change no matter what comes up in your life. No matter if you have success; don’t have success, just stay true to you and who you are and your beliefs. There’s greatness in everybody but it's about how we bring that greatness out really. Everybody is great at something. I just think with the position that I’m in at the moment, I’ve gotten success and I’m now in that role model position where people are watching me and some people are being influenced by me, so I think it is up to me to try and be a good role model for them.

Honestly, something that scares me the most right now would be that my dog is getting older. She’s 13 and it terrifies me that she’s getting older because I know that something is around the corner and that really scares me. I have three dogs. I have Macy, Nidge and Gus and Macy is 13 and there would be tearful moments even at home with me and Mandy when we talk about it and then we try to not talk about it but that is probably one of the things that scares me most in life at moment. I’ve lost people in life, but Macy is the closest thing that I have in my life. They’re [the dogs] more than just family to be honest. I just love them so much.

I’d like to be remembered as just being a nice person. That’s the way I would like to be remembered, as someone who was a nice person and had time for most of the people that she met. If I am remembered for being an Olympic champion, that would be great, but I would still rather be remembered for just being a good person and someone who was there for other people when they needed it, to be very honest.

• Olympic gold medallist Kellie Harrington recently undertook a nationwide road trip to visit some of Ireland’s most deserving Community Groups as part of the SPAR Community Fund. As part of the initiative, five organisations each received €2,000 in funding. SPAR recently announced a three-year partnership with Kellie that will see SPAR support her on her journey to Paris 2024.