MICHAELA WALSH FULFILLED a longstanding dream, took a quick holiday to Spain, and leapt straight back into training.
She’s still smiling, even shortly following a sparring session with Britain, whose boxers are in Dublin as two teams from either side of the Irish Sea prepare in earnest for the European Elite Women’s Championships in Budva next month.
Walsh has drawn a target for her own back — both in Abbotstown with Team GB and in Montenegro between 11 and 23 October — for featherweights don’t come much more elite than the six-time major medallist from Belfast who, having taken silver at the last two Commonwealth Games, recently proved herself the cream of the crop in Birmingham.
She can take satisfaction from that much until she bids to expand her rule to the continent.
“I know it’s not the be-all and end-all, winning the gold medal at the Commonwealths, but I think just with being so close in 2014 and 2018, it was nearly like a piece of me was missing,” Walsh tells The42. “I know that might sound stupid but it was a bit of unfinished business.
“Going into that tournament, I didn’t put any pressure on myself. I said to myself, ‘What happened in the past, happened in the past.’ Looking back now, I’m immensely proud of winning silver in 2014 and 2018. Going into Birmingham, I just went in to enjoy the moment.
2014- Silver
— Michaela Walsh (@michaelaw57) August 10, 2022
2018- Silver
2022- Gold
Commonwealth Games Champion
NEVER give up on your DREAMS💫 pic.twitter.com/EwoTpSLypp
“Aidan was the same,” Walsh says of her younger brother, a fellow Tokyo Olympian and 2022 Commonwealth gold medallist. “He said he’d put no pressure on himself, he just wanted to go out there and do the best that he could do — and I just sort of went with him on that. We were saying to each other that we were just going to really enjoy the journey and live in the moment.
I think in the past, I was always focused on medals. ‘Going for gold. Going for gold.’ That’s no bad thing to have. But I’ve matured a bit as a person and as an athlete, and I realise that I’m more than an athlete, more than a boxer. Medals don’t change my life or who I am as a person in any way, shape or form. And knowing that kind of takes some of the pressure off, actually.
“But at the same time”, Walsh adds, “just to finally win a Commonwealth gold medal after working so, so hard [was gratifying]… Because there were days were I doubted myself, or times when I said, ‘Is this really for me?’ So, to have that gold around my neck after the two silvers was phenomenal and to do it along with Aidan made it more magical, more special, so it did.”
This fresh perspective strikes as a departure from the Walsh siblings’ previous mantra, ‘Gold Medals Only’, often stylised on their social media accounts as ‘#GMO.’
Walsh, laughing, clarifies that the catchphrase has never been “only about an actual gold medal” but “about gold medals in everything: your nutrition, your training, your sleep and your recovery; living a gold-medal life.
“It’s more about just trying to be the best version of yourself, and the actual medals are secondary,” she explains.
“Sometimes, as athletes, you’re seen as being a machine, nearly, more so than as a human being. Being happy away from the podium is more important to me than any medals.”
Walsh, who at 29 has accrued more medals at various levels of boxing than she has lived years, is speaking at the launch of Sport Ireland’s ‘Changing the Game’ campaign. It has been launched in conjunction with the organisation’s inclusion policy, which advocates for a sport sector that “celebrates diversity, promotes inclusion, and is pro-active in providing opportunities for lifelong participation for everyone.”
Walsh is openly in a relationship with her partner, Emily Jane, but given that her sport has traditionally led the way in its embracing of inclusion, her sexuality has rarely made for public conversation.
She’s cognisant, though, that younger people from the LGBTQ+ community — be they boxers or otherwise — may be only beginning to have the conversation privately as they come to terms with who they are.
For Walsh, the process of coming out began with family — and particularly brother Aidan, four years her junior but a brother who she has “always looked up to”.
“We’re best friends”, Walsh says, “so some advice to younger people would be to go to someone you really trust, someone who you know will accept you for who you are.
“I’m so thankful that my parents were the same: they just accepted me for who I was and they love me for who I am, regardless of my sexuality.
“Just, if you have someone you really trust, you can open up to them. The first step is just talking to people. Open up to a friend, a family member, and talk about it.
It can be a struggle when you’re growing up: you sort of see what ‘normal’ is, and obviously you feel different. It can be hard to come to terms with how you feel, a bit of an identity crisis.
“But I always think you have to put your happiness first — and to be happy within yourself, you have to accept your true self,” Walsh continues. “I think that’s the main thing I’ve found.
“Especially for younger people coming up, it’s so important that they know — regardless of their sexuality, their background, their gender, whether they’ve a disability, anything — they can just be happy to actually be themselves.
“And I’m not saying people look up to me or anything like that, but maybe if they see someone with a bit of a high profile, doing well in their sport — or an actor or an actress doing well for themselves, or anything like that — and they see that person is first and foremost proud to be who they are, it can help them to just be who they are and do what they want to do.
I also think that not having to hide who I am allows me to perform to the best of my ability in what I do.
“And you can’t control who accepts you or who doesn’t accept you. If someone doesn’t like you for who you are, that’s their problem — that’s not your problem.”
There is a freedom to Walsh at 29, and yet it one that consists of “staying on top of” many small, everyday things; not only curating her meticulous boxing lifestyle but making time to go for a walk, meeting friends for coffee, offloading on those friends and/or absorbing anything they might need to offload on her.
She notes that logging out of her social media accounts and “getting into a good book” helps her when she’s “going through a bit of a slump”. Walsh knows, as most of us do, that Instagram accounts are little more than highlight reels in the quasi-competition that is modern life but even on the legitimately competitive front, watching boxing rivals break a sweat when she happens to be taking a breather can make for a bad buzz.
“But it’s important not to compare yourself to other people”, she says, “and that goes for other athletes as well. Social media is nearly a fake version of your life. You never see people posting about their problems. It’s nearly like a gambler: you see a gambler putting up, ‘Aw, I won €500 on a horse last night.’ But how much did they lose in the days beforehand?”
When she takes a step back for a second, Walsh likes what she sees of her own life and, within a sporting context, her illustrious CV.
“If I was to walk away from boxing today, I’m so happy, I’m so proud of what I’ve achieved,” she says. “To become an Olympian was such a big dream of mine. To win Commonwealth gold and win so many other things were big dreams.
“At the same time, obviously, there are other goals and dreams that I still have.”
One of those ambitions may wind up leading her to the professional ring. It is a transition which Walsh considered making after the Tokyo Olympics, partly inspired by the ceaseless success of her former team-mate, Katie Taylor.
There was certainly interest in Walsh’s signature but, after some consideration, she politely rebuffed it. For the next two years, at least, the Monkstown BC woman remains more interested in making an even more indelible mark in the Irish vest.
“I do love amateur boxing and the Olympics is just so, so big for me. It’s always been a dream to stand on the podium, so…
“But everything from this point onwards is a bonus,” Walsh smiles. “I’d be greedy if I asked for anything more.”
Michaela Walsh was speaking at the launch of Sport Ireland’s ‘Changing the Game’ campaign. The campaign supports Sport Ireland’s Diversity and Inclusion Policy in Sport which expresses its vision for a sport sector that celebrates diversity, promotes inclusion, and is proactive in providing opportunities for lifelong participation for everyone.
