ELEVEN DAYS HAVE elapsed since Aidan Walsh guaranteed himself a bronze medal at the Olympic Games, enough time for him to make peace with the broken leg he suffered during a celebratory leap which dictated that his Tokyo campaign would go no further than the 69kg semi-final stage.
It will forever be a case of what might have been but, over the course of the last week and a half, Walsh has found definitive solace — indeed, pure joy — in having etched his name into the history books, the Wikipedia entries, and boxing-gym walls alongside those of his heroes.
None of this, however, prepared him for the scenes which greeted him as he and Olympic champion Kellie Harrington led the Irish-boxing team through Dublin Airport upon their homecoming on Tuesday afternoon: the guard of honour by soldiers and airport staff, the unprecedented media attention, but most importantly: the people decked out in green outside.
“It still just all seems surreal,” Walsh says. “Even just coming back and all, there, all those people… My mum, my dad, my girlfriend, my uncle, my coach; my girlfriend’s mum and dad, my girlfriend’s sister; Michaela’s girlfriend Emily was there as well. Aw, there was just so many people there. I can’t wait to just get out and talk to them properly and soak it all up.
Usually I’m the one standing there in the crowd supporting other people but to be standing there on the other side is crazy.
“I just feel extremely lucky, extremely grateful. Obviously, everyone else on the team deserves to be here as well with a medal. We were all that talented.
“But first and foremost, I’m an Olympian alongside my sister. We qualified on the same day and we shared that whole journey. Everything else is a bonus.”
Belfast’s Walsh, 24, has ostensibly come from nowhere to take his seat at Irish boxing’s big-boy table. For context, the February 2019 Irish Elite final in his welterweight bracket materialised as a feverishly anticipated showdown between two of Ireland’s leading Tokyo prospects, Galway’s reigning champion Kieran Molloy and Limerick’s Paddy Donovan. Molloy won one of the highest-quality finals ever to take place at the National Stadium and seized the wheel just over a year out from the Olympics, while Donovan, who had all but ended Walsh’s Olympic dream at the semi-final stage, later turned professional with Bob Arum’s Top Rank under the guidance of Andy Lee.
Donovan’s departure from the setup in April 2019 opened up a spot for Walsh in the High Performance Unit in Abbotstown. There, after a number of continuous-assessment spars against the Olympic frontrunner Molloy, Walsh was selected over the extremely talented Oughterard man for the 2019 Worlds in Russia in September.
Two months later, at the second Elites of the year (technically the 2020 edition, but moved forward due to impending Olympic qualifiers the following spring), Walsh beat back-to-back champion Molloy on a 4-1 split decision at the quarter-final stage, eventually breezing his way to his first senior national title with consecutive unanimous-decision (5-0) wins.
He locked down the potential 69kg Olympic spot and, at the postponed European qualifiers earlier this summer, he booked his seat on the plane. He has gone from beaten semi-finalist at the national championships to, well, technically unbeaten Olympic semi-finalist and medalist in just over two years.
“It’s incredible,” Walsh gushes. “Even there, when you say that, I have to pinch myself because I’ve just come so far in such a short period of time. I’ve always obviously been training behind the scenes but all I needed was the opportunity. My club, Monkstown, and my coach Paul Johnston helped me massively. Then, going to Dublin, the Irish High Performance gave me an opportunity sending me to the [2019] World Championships.
But even there before the European [Olympic] qualifiers, I don’t think I was even in the world rankings at all. I remembering seeing a photo — I think it was of the top 40 at the time — and my name wasn’t even in it. Obviously, world rankings don’t set anything in stone for ya but I remember going, ‘I’m flipping not even in the top 40.’ God knows where I am now but I’d like to think I’m a wee bit up the ladder, anyway!
A wee bit up the road, the fellow members of his and Michaela’s beloved home club, Monkstown BC in Belfast, await the arrival of their Olympic heroes.
It is there where Walsh’s remarkable progress will resonate most, particularly with the kids who have seen him put in the requisite work. He will be like a God when he walks through those gym doors holding an Olympic medal but he will make no bones about reminding the next generation of Monkstown and Belfast boxers that he was but one of them until very recently.
“It’s going to be amazing. You look all the other years with boxers from Belfast coming back to their towns, to their clubs with a medal, like. It’s just crazy that I’m one of them now. I can’t wait, honestly. I can’t wait.
Just for them to hold it, feel it, see it themselves that nothing is impossible. I always remember looking and seeing other people’s medals and thinking, ‘That’d be great.’ But there’s nothing stopping anybody from doing it. Everyone is talented at something but you have to put in the work and if you’re willing to put in the work, the sky is the limit for ya. I’ll give it to kids in the community: they can take it away for the night if they want it and put it under their pillow and dream about it. Because you have to dream — that’s exactly what I’ve done. No secrets or nothing. Just dream, keep dreaming, never stop dreaming.
He hints that his medium-term future will likely see him aim for Paris 2024 — “long may it continue”, he says of representing Ireland alongside his older sister. Three years is a long time, of course, and Walsh exudes a natural charisma that will have already appealed to professional boxing promoters who were combing through the Tokyo Games looking for ideas.
Before he gives any of that proper thought, though, he has a shorter-term dream on his mind:
I’m going to go to my caravan with my girlfriend down in Carnlough and just take it easy, have a bit of Chinese, a tin of Coke; and have lots of chocolate, lots of sweets and just pig out. I haven’t had sweets in ages! There was no sweets in Japan — I don’t think so, anyway, but we weren’t allowed in shops or anything. I would’ve liked an oul’ packet of Haribo or something! So, I can’t wait. Ah, I can’t wait.
