‘She’s the world’s favourite Olympian. She’s bigger than Bolt’
“Everyone loves her — and not just in Ireland,” said Connor Fitzpatrick, one of 10,000 die-hard fans at the screening of the gold medal fight in Bray, Co Wicklow.
“She’s the world’s favourite Olympian. She’s bigger than Bolt.”
Earlier, US magazine Sports Illustrated echoed the sentiment when it compared Katie to the 100m champion.
The 26-year-old, who held the Tricolour at the opening ceremony of London 2012, made history 20 years and a day since Ireland’s last boxing gold.
The whole island was gripped with Katie fever — from the thousands outside the Shoreline Leisure Centre near her home to hundreds on the grounds of Belfast’s city hall and dozens of her friends at St Mark’s Pentecostal.
Eugene O’Kane, an amateur judge and chairman at Derry city’s Oakleaf boxing club, was wholehearted in his praise.
“She is a trailblazer, she is one of the people that put women’s boxing into the Olympics because of her exploits,” he said.
With the ExCel Arena the focus, Katie’s hometown of Bray was close to a letdown after a 40-minute power cut until minutes before Katie’s fight against Russian Sofya Ochigava. The tension switched to nerves when the local heroine went a point down only to box her way to gold, putting both her sport and country firmly on the map.
Emma Griffin, who travelled to Bray from Cork, said: “Going out as the world’s first-ever female gold medallist boxer is the ultimate achievement. At just 26, what she has achieved is incredible.”
Nowhere was more electric than the champion’s small seaside hometown where her friends, family, neighbours, and fans stood shoulder-to-shoulder chanting her name in the midst of a street carnival.
The crowds waited nervously while the judges tallied the final score amid fears of a countback of punches and points — hands clasped tightly as countless prayers were offered.
Katie’s neighbours in the Oldcourt Estate, who have known her her whole life, had their own big screen beaming the fight and their own kind words.
The humble nature that has endeared her to a nation and sports fans worldwide was remembered by her neighbours.
Esther O’Brien, who also lives on Katie’s street, said everyone loved a champion who remembered their roots. “She’s such a beautiful girl. She always was. No airs and graces — just a genuine, down-to-earth, gorgeous girl. That’s our Katie.”
Read more:
A turning point in how we see ourselves?
No longer an ordinary girl just doing her job, she is a heroine and a queen for life
Green wall of noise as fans cheer champion
‘Katie’s psalm’ is a plea to God to be her shield
‘The Irish people admire her and love her to bits’
‘I just knew it was Katie’s destiny to be Olympic champion’
Katie lifts gold – and hearts of a nation
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