Walsh eager to fulfil American dream after next Olympics

The mastermind of Ireland’s amateur boxing heroics, Billy Walsh, has spoken of his American dream.

After controversial and lengthy negotiations with the IABA following the London Olympics, the head of the high performance unit has signed a new contract until the Rio de Janeiro Games of 2016. However yesterday he revealed other goals away from his current role, and one in particular across the Atlantic that might come to fruition in time.

“My head was turned but I’m an Irishman and my family are here,” the Wexford native said.

“But there are big challenges out there and the one I’d really like to have a go at is America. How come they aren’t winning everything? They’ve 250 million people and they don’t have talent? They just don’t have any system. They throw up an odd jingler now and again but by God, there’s a sleeping giant, they should be the best nation in the world.

“Was it on the cards? There’s been talk about it. Australia was mentioned as well, England too, but I’m very happy now. We’ve a good squad and a bright future right here. A lot of the boxers and all the support squad decided to stay on after London. But the American thing, it was just talk really and it never went any further than that. They never offered anything, they just asked if I’d be interested.”

Despite Ireland’s record-breaking medal haul in August, Walsh was forced to wait on a contract extension and at the time the high performance unit was believed to be at odds with the sport’s ruling body, the IABA. But with the 10-year anniversary of that high performance unit on Sunday, Walsh also spoke of the stresses it has caused him and where he and his team go from here.

“It was hard for me and there was a concern over the contract. We all took a bit of time out after the Olympics and then it just dragged out. It dragged out too long and longer than it should have and during that time I was talking to one other country about a job. But eventually we got to the conclusion we wanted and I’m happy here.

“We’ve built this from zero. In Beijing we finished 12th in the medal table, in London we finished fifth and now we’ve set ourselves a new challenge which us how do we go from five to one?”