Speaker 1: She said, it's now never I got fighting in my blood.
Speaker 2: I'm tiff.
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Speaker 2: Katie Parker, welcome to roll with the punches. If anyone
Speaker 2: deserves to be here, bloody hell, it's you.
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you, love love to be here, love,
Speaker 1: Oh my god, what a great start by me. It's
Speaker 1: great to be here. We'll just say that that's.
Speaker 2: You just mirroring my setup.
Speaker 3: I've just told you how I make up words and
Speaker 3: screw things up, and that's just you do it, being
Speaker 3: a good guest and just fitting right in off forget go.
Speaker 1: I had to yah set the expectations high from the start.
Speaker 2: Really, what can we say? We both get punched in
Speaker 2: the head a lot, so.
Speaker 1: Expect all the time. And I'm like, I really shouldn't
Speaker 1: say that, Like it doesn't sound good, But it's just
Speaker 1: a way to get out of things, you know.
Speaker 2: I love saying it.
Speaker 3: I think I just love the shock bealley of just
Speaker 3: going to get punched it a lot. And I love
Speaker 3: it more if people don't realize what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: Ah, you don't give the context of you're a box
Speaker 1: or anything. They're like, You're okay, how's your home situation.
Speaker 2: What's it like? What's it like these days? Being in
Speaker 2: a limpian.
Speaker 1: Same old Really, see the fact that I get a
Speaker 1: little l y underpass my name that I can chuck
Speaker 1: on the Instagram and whatnot, so you know, just could
Speaker 1: have got to use the perks while when I have them,
Speaker 1: you know, so, but it's the same old really. I
Speaker 1: just I have a nice, tiny little medal that I
Speaker 1: got to bring home that I could just show off
Speaker 1: now and then.
Speaker 3: Is it weird being a medal winning olympian for our
Speaker 3: country yet in a sport where so many people are
Speaker 3: probably only just beginning to watch, like Boxing's growing, and
Speaker 3: it's growing for women and it's awesome, but it feels
Speaker 3: like a sport that's really young in terms of people
Speaker 3: knowing who's representing the country and that we're even here.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, I mean, like, obviously it's one of the
Speaker 1: oldest Olympic sports, but women were only allowed to fight
Speaker 1: in the Olympics in twenty two twelve, which is nuts.
Speaker 1: I think that was the first time that was equal representation,
Speaker 1: not in numbers, but just like males and females in
Speaker 1: every sport at the Olympics. Like crazy that it's taken
Speaker 1: this long. Ah, But yeah, like I guess, you know,
Speaker 1: even from an early age, you know, as a young
Speaker 1: girl in a male dominated sport, I always wanted to
Speaker 1: prove that I belonged, and you know, being one of
Speaker 1: the only girls in the gym, just that was just
Speaker 1: a constant, uphill battle guys not wanting to spa or
Speaker 1: work with me, and you know, just having to go, well,
Speaker 1: you're gonna get in the ring with me, and if
Speaker 1: you're not gonna punch me back, I'm just gonna punch
Speaker 1: You're gonna punch me back eventually. So going in with
Speaker 1: that kind of mindset, I was just like I just
Speaker 1: want to prove that, like I can be better than you.
Speaker 1: You know, it doesn't matter male or female, Like I'm
Speaker 1: gonna work harder than you. I'm gonna, you know, put
Speaker 1: everything that I have into this. And I've loved seeing
Speaker 1: the sport grow in that amount of time. At my gym.
Speaker 1: Now I think more than half of the fighters actually female,
Speaker 1: and yeah, how good is that? And then we have
Speaker 1: these like development days the girls get together and it's
Speaker 1: just like I look around, I'm like, this is crazy,
Speaker 1: what the hell? Like this is so awesome. I was
Speaker 1: even invited to the AIS to the Australian introduced sport
Speaker 1: to do, you know, just talk to the females. I
Speaker 1: had a female camp there, more like the girls that
Speaker 1: have had maybe under ten or eleven, ten or fifteen
Speaker 1: fights or something like that. And I went there and
Speaker 1: I'm looking around. There's like forty of these girls that
Speaker 1: have gone to this camp alone, and I'm like, make
Speaker 1: sure that you get each other's numbers and contacts and
Speaker 1: work together, even if you just do a little weekend together,
Speaker 1: travel to each other and just you know, it's so
Speaker 1: great to be able to uplift each other. But and
Speaker 1: then again to make the headlines and be you know,
Speaker 1: make the history of being the first female to meddle
Speaker 1: for Australia in boxing at the Olympics was insane. That's
Speaker 1: that's a massive goal of mine. But also to see
Speaker 1: the impact that it has had on others and to
Speaker 1: see that in the in the headlines going you know,
Speaker 1: boxer female and so many people got around me. It's just,
Speaker 1: I don't know, it's incredible.
Speaker 3: It just even just as you said that, and I
Speaker 3: like when you reflect on that and go, that lives
Speaker 3: in history forever now, like no one can. People can
Speaker 3: come along and do it again, but no one can
Speaker 3: do it for the first time again. Your name will
Speaker 3: always be etched in history as the first medal winning
Speaker 3: female for Australia.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, pretty, we hear that, to be honest, so amazing.
Speaker 1: I mean, getting a medal at the Olympics is hard work.
Speaker 1: I think in the history of Australia boxing in the Olympics,
Speaker 1: which goes back to I don't know back in time.
Speaker 1: I got to get the stats, but I think I'm
Speaker 1: about the seventh maybe the eighth medalist all up, so
Speaker 1: we really doesn't happen very often, and we had Harry
Speaker 1: guy side, really really good friend of mine, like Zilli's
Speaker 1: like a brother to me. He won that first medal
Speaker 1: back after thirty three years we hadn't won a medal,
Speaker 1: so he won that in in Tokyo, and to be
Speaker 1: there to cheer him on after things didn't go my way,
Speaker 1: it was just amazing to be able to just soak
Speaker 1: in that and just made history, Like how good is that?
Speaker 1: And then you know, it made me work even harder, pushed,
Speaker 1: pushed and put everything I had into this and and
Speaker 1: myself and one of the other boys again like a
Speaker 1: little brother to me that you know, we've we've traveled
Speaker 1: and trained together for years and years and we both
Speaker 1: of us together won a medal and to be able
Speaker 1: to celebrate that again, it was just amazing and it
Speaker 1: was me I got to do it.
Speaker 2: It's so amazing, is it? Because how many fights have
Speaker 2: you had? Now?
Speaker 1: I've had one hundred and twenty seven five.
Speaker 3: So that's a lot of time stepping into the ring. Yeah,
Speaker 3: but in terms of stepping into the ring for the
Speaker 3: Olympics that only comes around every four years? Does that
Speaker 3: what does that do to you? What does it do
Speaker 3: to your mindset, your form? Wants your expectation of yourself
Speaker 3: and anything else that you experienced that no one else
Speaker 3: knows about. A probably nothing until the next one, and
Speaker 3: then you're gonna be like, oh, I remember that question
Speaker 3: you asked, Shit, this is a big deal.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like basically, all I can say is that, like,
Speaker 1: this has been a goal of mine since I can remember.
Speaker 1: I was you know, when I started the sport and
Speaker 1: found out that women's boxing was in the Olympics. Like
Speaker 1: that's when it started for me. And it has been
Speaker 1: such a long journey to get here, and it's taken
Speaker 1: so many you know falls to come back and you know,
Speaker 1: not getting that goal straight away. Is this big goal
Speaker 1: I said of mine from an early age, to go
Speaker 1: through the pits and falls of it, to keep pushing
Speaker 1: through this long seventeen years I've been boxing, So I
Speaker 1: started when I was eleven years old, and now a
Speaker 1: lot of people have just been started following me, you
Speaker 1: know lately, you know, coming into coming into Paris, and
Speaker 1: it might just seem like, oh, wow, you know you
Speaker 1: did amazing whatever, But I'm like that, can you understand
Speaker 1: how long how much work it actually took me? But
Speaker 1: thank you, I really appreciate it, and then it was
Speaker 1: like straight away as soon as I got home, when's
Speaker 1: the next one? What are you doing now? I'm like,
Speaker 1: give me a little, give me a breath this, I
Speaker 1: want to take this moment. And I never I've never
Speaker 1: taken a taken an achievement in I don't think I've
Speaker 1: just kind of moved on to the next one. This one,
Speaker 1: I've really given myself the chance to just reflect on
Speaker 1: the whole journey and just take it in like this
Speaker 1: is I did it.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 3: Now I've heard I've heard a lot more of your story,
Speaker 3: But can you talk about how you started in because
Speaker 3: I really loved listening when we when we first met,
Speaker 3: and I heard about when you started boxing and how
Speaker 3: and just the journey, Like, what's it? Can you just
Speaker 3: tell us tell us a story storytime with Katie.
Speaker 1: Yeah, let's take us back to I don't even know
Speaker 1: what year, when I was eleven years old. No, so
Speaker 1: I actually got into combat sports my dad big yeah,
Speaker 1: Daddy's girl. And you know, he always wanted me to
Speaker 1: look after myself, and he got me into taekwondo to
Speaker 1: start with, and he said I wasn't allowed to walk
Speaker 1: to school by myself. Until I got a black belt
Speaker 1: in taekwondo. So I worked hard because I really wanted
Speaker 1: to walk to side. I don't know why I wanted
Speaker 1: to walk to school so badly, but I was really hard.
Speaker 1: And then as soon as I could, I got a
Speaker 1: black belt and that's what I was competing and things
Speaker 1: like that, and you know, I love that obviously. That
Speaker 1: was my first kind of setting goals at a young age,
Speaker 1: when I got that I don't want to walk to
Speaker 1: school by was no's just taking me in the car
Speaker 1: now independence He realized it's not that great, but U.
Speaker 1: And then we got to black belt and actually my
Speaker 1: first time in the ring, in the ring, what do
Speaker 1: you call on the mat in taekwondo, it's been a
Speaker 1: little while for me. I was actually because I I've
Speaker 1: always been big for my age. I grew, I grew
Speaker 1: from an early age, and I always looked older than
Speaker 1: I was. So I was nine years old getting on
Speaker 1: the on the mat, so weird to say, not in
Speaker 1: the ring, but on the mat with fifteen year olds
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. And then in boxing I wanted
Speaker 1: to start that. It was just the next challenge. I
Speaker 1: couldn't go to the next dan of the on the
Speaker 1: on your belt until it was a couple of years
Speaker 1: I had to wait, and I was like, I'm ready
Speaker 1: for for a new challenge. It was very, very different
Speaker 1: kind of environment I'd say, taekwondo and boxing. Well, even
Speaker 1: the gyms I was at. So this gym for taekwondo,
Speaker 1: it was very you know, strict, you couldn't talk to
Speaker 1: anyone else. You had to you know, do all the things,
Speaker 1: you bow with the right times and uh. And then
Speaker 1: I went to the boxing gym and it's just funny.
Speaker 1: The first time I walked into the gym. My coach's
Speaker 1: name is Fox. He looks like a big Viking, muscled up,
Speaker 1: tattooed head to toe and just we were like a
Speaker 1: better word like bow, you know. I was just like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, come on, and I was like, hey, this
Speaker 1: is different already. Wow, let's go. And he partnered me
Speaker 1: up with this boy to work with it for the
Speaker 1: first day and he was like, you know, you're be
Speaker 1: working with this guy. He's the Australian champion. And I
Speaker 1: was like, oh my god, whoa, that's so cool, Like
Speaker 1: I had to work with the Aussie champion, Like that's
Speaker 1: what I want to be so that was really impactful
Speaker 1: to start with. And yeah, I guess it just it
Speaker 1: just kept me going. I loved that environment and I
Speaker 1: was always very very shy, so you know, I was
Speaker 1: very excited, but I'd still hide behind mum and dad
Speaker 1: before i'd walk into the gym. But basically that's how
Speaker 1: it started boxing.
Speaker 2: That's so brave.
Speaker 3: Like I remember walking into gyms even once i'd already
Speaker 3: started fighting, and walking into new gyms just for fitness
Speaker 3: based classes really and still feeling incredibly intimidating and thinking
Speaker 3: you've trained under some pretty brutal coaches as you've fought,
Speaker 3: and you still feel self conscious as a female walking
Speaker 3: into some of these really friendly, really welcome in boxing gyms.
Speaker 2: Like imagine you ton little thing.
Speaker 1: I wasn't very tiny, but yeah, yeah for sure, like
Speaker 1: I was, I was incredibly shy, like zero self confidence.
Speaker 1: And yeah, I think that's also when my dad like
Speaker 1: always wanted to give me. My parents sorry, my dad
Speaker 1: put me, wanted me to go to the combat route.
Speaker 1: But my parents were super supportive and and got me wanted.
Speaker 1: They saw the value of sport. They weren't able to
Speaker 1: do it much when they were younger. Although my mom
Speaker 1: is not sporty in the slightest and not coordinated. She's
Speaker 1: always I've tried to take her on the pads before
Speaker 1: my mom just left right like. But so yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: my parents just saw the value in sport and giving
Speaker 1: me some confidence. I needed that a lot, and you know,
Speaker 1: discipline and resilience, and through that, I was able to
Speaker 1: discover my own strength that came with challenging my limits
Speaker 1: as well.
Speaker 2: I love that. When did you start competing in the boxing?
Speaker 1: So I didn't actually get to compete until I was thirteen.
Speaker 1: So I because I was always trying to find fights,
Speaker 1: but there was no one my age and way the
Speaker 1: first so I was weighing in thirteen years old seventy kilos,
Speaker 1: like there was no one my age and way, and
Speaker 1: so I fight at seventy five kilos now, So I've
Speaker 1: always been like this tall and this is big. But
Speaker 1: I say, like I'm massive, I'm not, you know, at
Speaker 1: that age it was yeah taller. I was always in
Speaker 1: the back line of the school photos. I always wanted
Speaker 1: to be in the front. I wanted to sit down
Speaker 1: like the other girls, but I was standing at the back.
Speaker 1: It's the small things. But yeah, I why do I
Speaker 1: lose track of what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2: I go, I love it.
Speaker 3: It's like how Yeah, because even when I started around
Speaker 3: that time, and it was starting to get a bit
Speaker 3: more popular, but probably more so because my entry into
Speaker 3: boxing was through the corporate Boxing Challenges, which is a
Speaker 3: very friendly environment to be given an opportunity like that.
Speaker 3: But at your age, at that time, there's no opportunities
Speaker 3: to fight. So I'd love you to share how your
Speaker 3: your parents got those opportunities for you and how you
Speaker 3: developed that.
Speaker 1: Yes, and that reminds me of exactly yeah, what I
Speaker 1: was just talking about as well. So yeah, So I
Speaker 1: was continuously trying to find fights. I was telling my coach,
Speaker 1: so please, I just want to I want to get
Speaker 1: in the ring. I don't know what pushed me so hard,
Speaker 1: but I just I wanted to challenge myself. I wanted
Speaker 1: to get in the ring. Obviously all the training that
Speaker 1: I'd done. I wanted to show that I was listening
Speaker 1: and that it was all you know four or for
Speaker 1: a purpose. I'm very gold dribbn. I need something to
Speaker 1: kind of work towards. So getting in the ring was
Speaker 1: a big thing for me. And so the first time
Speaker 1: I got in the ring. It wasn't an official fight,
Speaker 1: it was called an exhibition. But to get someone in
Speaker 1: the ring with me, I had to get in the
Speaker 1: ring with a twenty five year old at thirteen years old,
Speaker 1: and I loved it. It was such a great experience.
Speaker 1: Everyone was like, oh, you definitely won that. We were
Speaker 1: both got our hands raised at the end. But I
Speaker 1: took that. I was like, yeah, but that was yeah.
Speaker 1: That was early on, and then I was able to
Speaker 1: get a couple of like I think my first actual
Speaker 1: official fight was a state title fighting yeah, this other girl. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was I had to kind of have the big
Speaker 1: fights early on. I went to nationals. It was my
Speaker 1: maybe my fifth or sixth five, and I ended up
Speaker 1: stopping the girl in forty five seconds, just because I
Speaker 1: was just so eager. And that's my first style. My
Speaker 1: taught me Foxy. He just taught me to be tough
Speaker 1: and I would just come forward and swing and yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess they didn't know what to do with me,
Speaker 1: and yeah, they ended up giving me the fight in
Speaker 1: forty five seconds. I was like, well that's and so
Speaker 1: from there, I was selected to go to the World
Speaker 1: Championships in Turkey, and I was just about to turn fifteen.
Speaker 1: I'm going to Turkey. I don't even think i'd heard
Speaker 1: of the country before, and I could just travel across
Speaker 1: the world. Yeah, insane. It didn't even at the time
Speaker 1: Mum and Dad, you know, they couldn't They couldn't come,
Speaker 1: They couldn't afford it. They put all their money and
Speaker 1: everything they had into just getting me to training. And
Speaker 1: I was meeting up with a teamide from Perth originally,
Speaker 1: so I was flying across across the country to meet
Speaker 1: up with some of the team I think it was
Speaker 1: Sydney probably, and then fly back over that way to
Speaker 1: Europe and to go to Turkey. Very very I think
Speaker 1: I just loved being able to take that in and travel.
Speaker 1: I never left Australia and New Zealand, and to be
Speaker 1: able to go and experience such different culture than what
Speaker 1: I was used to was just such a learning such
Speaker 1: a learning experience. And yeah, it took a lot out
Speaker 1: of it and I got to travel to some amazing
Speaker 1: countries after that. I think you learn more doing that
Speaker 1: stuff than anything else.
Speaker 3: One, how does the funding for that work? When you
Speaker 3: get opportunities or go and seek opportunities overseas?
Speaker 2: Is their funding available yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean back then there wasn't a lot. I think
Speaker 1: they might have helped us a little bit. But my
Speaker 1: parents they're my biggest support network. Like they're just incredible.
Speaker 1: The amount they've put in to be able to give
Speaker 1: myself and my brother the opportunities that they have. I
Speaker 1: can't thank them enough. I always bring them up because
Speaker 1: they deserve it so much. And and if I asked
Speaker 1: them to talk in an interview, they couldn't add all.
Speaker 1: They're just shy, but so they My dad has worked
Speaker 1: two jobs seven days a week for my whole life
Speaker 1: to how to get me to training. Has worked multiple jobs,
Speaker 1: She did some starts. She was secretary of boxing wa
Speaker 1: to you know, be able to support and be a
Speaker 1: part of it, get us you know that, I don't know,
Speaker 1: get us into the fights basically not have to pay,
Speaker 1: but that. And she would also sell pies and she
Speaker 1: would clean houses and she would do whatever it took
Speaker 1: to be able to raise funds because we didn't come
Speaker 1: from much with a low socioeconomic area. You know, a
Speaker 1: mum and dad probably I think they didn't even finish
Speaker 1: year eight year ten of highs of school. So yeah,
Speaker 1: they work extremely hard to be able to give us
Speaker 1: these opportunities and so yeah, they again fundraise like crazy.
Speaker 1: They get me to Turkey to the World Championships when
Speaker 1: I just turned fifteen, and I'm glad they did, you know,
Speaker 1: because I did win a bronze medal there that that
Speaker 1: was a big one for me. I was like, you know,
Speaker 1: I show them that their sacrifices were worth it. And really,
Speaker 1: for me, my biggest motivation is obviously myself, but then yeah,
Speaker 1: like and pushing myself and whatever, but that's that that
Speaker 1: pushes me. That that's my why as well. I want
Speaker 1: to show them that, you know, I can I can
Speaker 1: do and prove to them that, you know, all the
Speaker 1: work that they put in was worth.
Speaker 3: God, it's so amazing and it's so selfless and what
Speaker 3: like what was their expectation of I guess where this
Speaker 3: could take you? What were they hoping to give you?
Speaker 3: What were they hoping for you to get out of it?
Speaker 3: Like amateur? Like you're not making money amateur boxing?
Speaker 1: No? Yeah, no, definitely not So I get I think
Speaker 1: it started because they wanted to. I think my dad
Speaker 1: as well, from a young age, he always wanted to
Speaker 1: be involved in sport. But you know, couldn't could didn't
Speaker 1: have those opportunities to get out there and do that.
Speaker 1: So I think he wanted to always do that for us.
Speaker 1: I think the confidence and the discipline and resilience, I
Speaker 1: think they always wanted to instill that in us, and
Speaker 1: I think obvious see when I started winning and then
Speaker 1: showed a bit of potential. I think he just wanted
Speaker 1: me to be able to have the opportunities to get
Speaker 1: the most out of it and to be able to
Speaker 1: accomplish my dreams. And then I told my parents I
Speaker 1: want to I want to go to the Olympics, and
Speaker 1: remember being the local paper like I want to go
Speaker 1: to the Olympics, And you know, they just wanted to
Speaker 1: provide that for us and my brother. He he fought
Speaker 1: a bit, but yeah, he chose another life path and
Speaker 1: he wasn't really too interested in it. But for me, Yeah,
Speaker 1: even to this day, it's so important to have a
Speaker 1: great support network. I've got to own partner now, who's
Speaker 1: just incredible and I've been with him for seven years
Speaker 1: now and he's just been there. Like I can't thank
Speaker 1: him enough because I can't do this alone. Like you said,
Speaker 1: it doesn't pay the bills, and there is a struggle.
Speaker 1: And to be able to sit there and go away
Speaker 1: and travel for six months of the year most of
Speaker 1: the time, and train lot, and for them to stick
Speaker 1: stick by you, push you to be your best and
Speaker 1: you know, not not pull you backwards in any way.
Speaker 1: I'm really grateful.
Speaker 2: What is the sacrifice? Do you feel like you sacrifice
Speaker 2: in order to live this life? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I think sacrifice is a difficult word. I hear people
Speaker 1: saying a lot like, it's not sacrifice and you can
Speaker 1: because it's worth it, you know that is it's I
Speaker 1: don't know, people say a lot of things about the
Speaker 1: word sacrifice. I think you have to in a way absolutely,
Speaker 1: I you know. I guess something that comes to mind
Speaker 1: straight away is, you know, missing out on a lot
Speaker 1: of things at home. One big one was very quite recently.
Speaker 1: My best friend asked me to be her maid of
Speaker 1: honor and I missed that because I had to qualify
Speaker 1: for the Olympics in the Solomon Islands. And I looked
Speaker 1: and it was the day before the wedding, but there
Speaker 1: was no there's a flight out every second day. I wasn't.
Speaker 1: There was no way I was going to be able
Speaker 1: to make it. And I was gutted to be able
Speaker 1: to have to call her up on the phone. I
Speaker 1: was just blubbering. I didn't think I made sense. I
Speaker 1: was like, oh no, no, you know, I couldn't make
Speaker 1: it like that's you know, because because those people. I
Speaker 1: have a couple of beautiful, just solid friends that just
Speaker 1: completely understand that I can't be there for most things.
Speaker 1: But to say that to her, I was gutted. But
Speaker 1: she was like, if you don't go, Like, if if
Speaker 1: you don't go, buddy qualified with the Olympics, I would
Speaker 1: be mad at you that I.
Speaker 2: Don't want to be your friend anymore if you're not
Speaker 2: an Olympian.
Speaker 1: She probably said words, wasn't that you better freaking go?
Speaker 1: But yeah, I had to make my speech and I'm
Speaker 1: in the Solomon Islands and sweating. It's so hot and
Speaker 1: humid there. I was sweating and in my in my
Speaker 1: ausie uniform, just yeah, trying to give the most heartfelt
Speaker 1: speech that I could. But things like that, right, you
Speaker 1: miss out on those moments, I guess. And I had
Speaker 1: to move away from family and friends. Yeah, a few
Speaker 1: years ago now, six maybe six years ago, I had
Speaker 1: to move away from them because I knew more opportunities
Speaker 1: were here in Melbourne for me, and that was hard
Speaker 1: because my family is like my biggest value in life.
Speaker 1: I love being around them, my mum and dad, my brother,
Speaker 1: my partner. My partner and I moved over. We're like
Speaker 1: dating for six months and we moved over. I can't
Speaker 1: believe that I don't even know you that well. I
Speaker 1: don't know, but yeah, can we come over here to
Speaker 1: so I could get more opportunity to box and for
Speaker 1: him to work and whatnot, and so just things like
Speaker 1: that that it missed out a lot of stuff and
Speaker 1: I hated living away from them for this long. I've
Speaker 1: just actually just finally convinced them to come and live
Speaker 1: with me after that Log's It's been about five months
Speaker 1: or something now, but finally I'm like, God, I'm here.
Speaker 1: I'm happy. I've got all my loved ones around me.
Speaker 3: What's been the hardest in terms of the sport or
Speaker 3: the training or the skills. What's challenged you the most?
Speaker 1: Ooh ah, what's the challenge with there? There's obviously there's
Speaker 1: lots of challenges. I think one of my big challenge
Speaker 1: would be just, you know, making sure you just always
Speaker 1: show up and stay consistent. Because that's a that's a
Speaker 1: tough one just from always kind of remembering your goal.
Speaker 1: But I think I kind of go into the you
Speaker 1: know how I was saying earlier that it's been such
Speaker 1: a long journey, right and continuously showing up and putting
Speaker 1: my all into that for this long. I think that's
Speaker 1: totably been the biggest challenge for me. Because when I
Speaker 1: found out that I, you know, women could box in
Speaker 1: the Olympics, and I'd set myself a goal rio twenty sixteen,
Speaker 1: I would just be old enough to compete there, and
Speaker 1: I wanted that with everything I had, and before and
Speaker 1: after school, I'd before school, we'd go run around the
Speaker 1: block and do a certain amount of skips and push
Speaker 1: ups and whatever, go to school, come home. At the time,
Speaker 1: I was actually playing rugby and I was boxing. I
Speaker 1: wasn't playing boxing. I was playing rugby and boxing. But
Speaker 1: so I'd go from one training to the next because
Speaker 1: I thought, actually initially that I was going to go
Speaker 1: to the Olympics for both. I thought rugby and boxing,
Speaker 1: I can do that. But then you realize how much
Speaker 1: goes into one sport, and well, and then I got
Speaker 1: to go to you know, travel the world with boxing.
Speaker 1: So oh, okay, I guess, I guess that's an easy
Speaker 1: choice for me. But yeah, I set myself there, go out.
Speaker 1: I trained so hard. I'd take tuna and boiled eggs
Speaker 1: and apples to school. When i'd watch my friends eat
Speaker 1: the good food, sometimes I'd like, just give me a bite, please,
Speaker 1: just share a little bit. But I knew. I didn't
Speaker 1: know what it took, but I knew that I had
Speaker 1: to kind of do everything I could. I wouldn't go
Speaker 1: to parties and stuff. Not that I'm a big party
Speaker 1: or anyway. I wouldn't call that a sacrifice, but the
Speaker 1: normal teenage staff, I just did past that because it
Speaker 1: was just all about training and competition for me. And
Speaker 1: when it came to that year, the RIO twenty sixteen year,
Speaker 1: to qualify you had to win the Australian Championships. There
Speaker 1: was a woman there that had been the Australian chair
Speaker 1: for years in years, and she was expected to win.
Speaker 1: I came up from the youth's division and come up
Speaker 1: and I won, which was incredible. I was so stoked.
Speaker 1: I had to They challenged me again for the position.
Speaker 1: I had to fight again and I won that again,
Speaker 1: so I was happy I was like, right, I'm going
Speaker 1: to the qualifiers for boxing, the international qualifiers. You had
Speaker 1: to be top two in the top two in Asia,
Speaker 1: in Oceania, or top four in the world. So it
Speaker 1: was a tough qualification. I went over to Kazakhstan and
Speaker 1: I drew the hometown girl first and I lost my
Speaker 1: first fight, and that was it for me. That was it.
Speaker 1: I just thought, WHOA. After all of that, I was
Speaker 1: so heartbroken. I was shattered. I didn't want to go home,
Speaker 1: and I didn't want to go to mom and dad
Speaker 1: and face them and be, you know, like, after all
Speaker 1: they'd done for me and all my friends and family,
Speaker 1: the leaved in me. I didn't want to let them
Speaker 1: all down. And obviously I had to go home to
Speaker 1: go home. Flight there's my money, you stay here on
Speaker 1: a holiday, non explore kazakhsade though, So I had to
Speaker 1: go home. And then you realize that that's exactly where
Speaker 1: I needed to be, around that support network, and that
Speaker 1: my loved ones that don't actually value me because of
Speaker 1: what I do, they value me because of me and
Speaker 1: they love me for me. So that helped me a lot.
Speaker 1: And then I kind of had to take the accountability
Speaker 1: have a bit of self awareness, right, what do I
Speaker 1: need to do? What can change? What is this taught me?
Speaker 1: And so I was able to reflect and think, right,
Speaker 1: you know, what do I need to do. I ended
Speaker 1: up actually moving over to the Australian Institute of Sport. Well,
Speaker 1: I was such a mouthful in Canberra AIS AIS for
Speaker 1: short from now on, I had to move over. Oh
Speaker 1: I had to. I moved over there just because there's
Speaker 1: just a training center. There is nothing really around it
Speaker 1: at all. There is you get your food, you walk
Speaker 1: to the training center that you walk to the track. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's it. So I loved being in that environment just
Speaker 1: just head down, didn't have to think about anything else.
Speaker 1: And actually that kind of taught me there the importance
Speaker 1: of strength conditioning. There's an old boxes logic and people
Speaker 1: always say you don't want to get too big because
Speaker 1: you're going to be too slow, But no, you can
Speaker 1: be explosive and its strength and conditioning is so important.
Speaker 1: So I was able to just learn a lot in
Speaker 1: that way and being in that high performance environment all
Speaker 1: the time. Yeah, and there were a few other things,
Speaker 1: but that was really important because I had to change
Speaker 1: that goal right rear it didn't work out for me,
Speaker 1: what's next Tokyo. Tokyo is four years away. Four years
Speaker 1: seems like a long time, but there's a lot to do.
Speaker 1: I didn't realize it was actually to be five years.
Speaker 1: But uh anyway, we yeah, I had to had to
Speaker 1: work hard, and I guess that was a really good
Speaker 1: thing to do because the Tokyo qualification year come along
Speaker 1: and I always So we're going to Wuhan, China, and
Speaker 1: February twenty twenty, that's where we were going. I've never
Speaker 1: heard of the city before, and then it's all over
Speaker 1: the news and where we were in. We're in camp
Speaker 1: and waiting to go two days. Two days before we're
Speaker 1: heading off. I've got my sanitizer and a mask. I'm like,
Speaker 1: it's all good. I just won't like leave the room.
Speaker 1: I'll just fight and go back to my room. But
Speaker 1: then the city was shut down, so I was like,
Speaker 1: we're probably good that I wasn't already there. Oh So
Speaker 1: anyway back to Australia. Right five weeks time, we've got
Speaker 1: another day. We're going to Amman, Jordan, and we go
Speaker 1: back to a training camp in Thailand. We've been training
Speaker 1: really hard in the heat and humidity over there. We're
Speaker 1: in our last so the day before we leave, we've
Speaker 1: got our last sparring session, the last round. In the
Speaker 1: last thirty seconds, we're fighting away and the girl comes
Speaker 1: up from a from a ducks she ducks under and
Speaker 1: comes up and head butts me in the nose. Oh,
Speaker 1: And I just went, oh, I might have swept. I
Speaker 1: don't know to it be no, So I just went, oh,
Speaker 1: my god, something like that. And I went to my
Speaker 1: coach in the corner straight away because I knew something
Speaker 1: was right. He's gone wigg with my nose. He's like, oh,
Speaker 1: it's broken. I was like, oh my god, I can't
Speaker 1: even tell you again, blubbery mess. I just I tried
Speaker 1: to hold it in and they got out and I
Speaker 1: was like, what am I good? I was just in
Speaker 1: tears because I was like, you're kidding me. After this long,
Speaker 1: I've worked so hard and moved away from my family
Speaker 1: and friends and done everything I could, trained harder, trained
Speaker 1: three times a day, and I ate everything whatever. I
Speaker 1: like to put everything into this, and I'm like, after
Speaker 1: all of that, I've got a broken nose. I've never
Speaker 1: had a broken bone before. I didn't know how it
Speaker 1: was going to work. How long I had to heal.
Speaker 1: But we're heading over to to qualify as tomorrow. They've
Speaker 1: taken me to Bangkok Hospital and when I've got there,
Speaker 1: they brought the wheelchair out for me. They're wheeling me around.
Speaker 1: I thought, you know what, I'm just going to accept this. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I've got a photo taken to me and oh my god,
Speaker 1: my nose is swollen. I look like, just changes your
Speaker 1: whole face and yeah. I just thought. They go, oh,
Speaker 1: can you fight with a splinter in your nose? And
Speaker 1: I said, no, you cannot do that. I'm just going
Speaker 1: to use this, this situation where the masks have just
Speaker 1: come in to my advantage. I'm going to just hide it.
Speaker 1: I'm going to just put a mask on and no
Speaker 1: one's going to be able to see me. And so
Speaker 1: that's what I did. I went to the qualifiers and
Speaker 1: didn't tell anyone about it because I'm me and my
Speaker 1: coach and my and my teammates that were there knew
Speaker 1: about it, and I was like, I'm just going to
Speaker 1: go and find because nothing's going to stop me. I'm cool, mum.
Speaker 1: At the time, it's like it's okay, there's another qualify.
Speaker 1: I was like, no, mama. I'm like, there's no I'm
Speaker 1: fighting care. Lucky I did, because the next qualifiers got
Speaker 1: canceled anyway, so this was my only chance. And I
Speaker 1: ended up getting through three fights there with a broken
Speaker 1: nose and it was okay.
Speaker 3: Didn't make you fight differently because you didn't want to
Speaker 3: risk getting hit, so you were like, I'm getting this
Speaker 3: job down, I'm gonna stay.
Speaker 2: So they didn't make you fight differently.
Speaker 1: So I didn't fight differently until I so what my
Speaker 1: qualifying fight, I just put everything out there. I don't care.
Speaker 1: I don't care. It might hurt, yes, but whatever, I'll
Speaker 1: go through the pain because the adrenalin's going through you
Speaker 1: as well. You know, when you get hit. You notice
Speaker 1: you get hit in the boxing gym, so do over.
Speaker 1: Maybe not everyone knows how you get hit and it's okay,
Speaker 1: but like most of most of the time, the adrenaline
Speaker 1: is going through you. You don't kind of notice that.
Speaker 1: You notice that. You're like, oh, yeah, I got hit.
Speaker 1: Probably put my hand up or don't do that again.
Speaker 1: But I'm never in the going into the ring like
Speaker 1: oh this is you know, I'm worried that I'm gonna
Speaker 1: get hurt. Never ever, so I just went in normally
Speaker 1: like I always would. Yeah, my nose is a little
Speaker 1: bit more swollen, but it had come down by then
Speaker 1: a couple of days later, thank god. And yeah, when
Speaker 1: I qualified for the Olympics, that was one of the
Speaker 1: happiest moments of my life. It was just such a
Speaker 1: relief after all of that time. I was just like,
Speaker 1: I'm done. Out of my hand was raised and I
Speaker 1: dropped to the floor and I was like and then
Speaker 1: I realized I've got to get up and like thank
Speaker 1: my opponent. And I was so stoked. And then after that,
Speaker 1: I you know, fought until the through to the final
Speaker 1: and that was fine. I'm in the last fight. My
Speaker 1: coach is like, well, you've already qualified now, so if
Speaker 1: you get punched in the nose and stopping the fight,
Speaker 1: I've never had a fight stopped every and I was
Speaker 1: like no, So I fought super I was just whatever.
Speaker 1: I got in the ring, and I was just like,
Speaker 1: you know, on the outside, because I was like, if
Speaker 1: you start this fight, I will be mad. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it's only because he had that precaution, because we thought
Speaker 1: we were going to a fight for the Olympics in
Speaker 1: a couple of months. And it turns out we get
Speaker 1: home and they think, hey, you know, the Olympics are
Speaker 1: got to be canceled, and there was all this talk
Speaker 1: and I was just gutted. I didn't I didn't know
Speaker 1: how to. I didn't want to get out of bed
Speaker 1: in the morning. So like, what's the point that I've
Speaker 1: just qualified and now they're going to take that away
Speaker 1: from me? Blah blah blah, feeling sorry for myself.
Speaker 3: So did the qualifying just hold out for another year
Speaker 3: or did you have to requalify it?
Speaker 1: Did they lasted? So because they postponed it for the year,
Speaker 1: I was like, that's okay, I can do that. I
Speaker 1: can wait another year. I waited this long already, so yeah,
Speaker 1: that was that was good. The qualification stayed, and then
Speaker 1: they canceled the rest of the qualifications that year and
Speaker 1: continued them on just before before the Olympics. Actually it
Speaker 1: was held in twenty twenty one. So it was all good.
Speaker 1: But my preparation wasn't that great. To be honest, I
Speaker 1: was kind of stuck at home. I just moved to Melbourne.
Speaker 2: There's worst place to be, a bad timing.
Speaker 1: The best place to be. It was just cold for
Speaker 1: ten months of the year. Just felt like I was
Speaker 1: freezing coming from Perth and then yeah, going, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: now I'm not stuck for so it was I think
Speaker 1: it was like seven months or something in my just
Speaker 1: in my house, I couldn't go to the gym. I
Speaker 1: think towards the end of it, I could go to
Speaker 1: the gym once a week something like that. It was ridiculous.
Speaker 1: I had no equipment at home, and for me, I
Speaker 1: just I love to eat and that's what I was
Speaker 1: just probably wasn't watching the scale enough realized Okay, if yes,
Speaker 1: I talk about weight, because this is obviously weight based sport.
Speaker 1: I fight at seventy five kilos. I checked the scales
Speaker 1: in February. I was eighty nine kilos. Oh shit, I
Speaker 1: was fighting in July at seventy five. And I know
Speaker 1: it sounds super irresponsibly, was I was just my mind
Speaker 1: was just I don't know, I just didn't see it
Speaker 1: in myself. I thought I'm not going to step on
Speaker 1: the scales or sorted out. And then I didn't realize
Speaker 1: I've never been that heavy before. That was a big shock.
Speaker 3: And then.
Speaker 1: Butted really utilizing my dietitian We've got another thing there.
Speaker 1: But yeah, quarantine to get out of Melbourne and be
Speaker 1: able to train freely, and then yeah, it got back
Speaker 1: into the swing of it about that time as well.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it was a bit of a challenge. I
Speaker 1: keep talking, but yeah, we haven't even gone to Paris yet.
Speaker 3: It's such a that is such a great story though,
Speaker 3: Like just listening to that, so I'm like, what an awesome,
Speaker 3: bloody hero's journey story.
Speaker 2: That is, the whole broken nose and the carry on.
Speaker 1: And then.
Speaker 2: Mom, yeah, what there you go? Fucking gone that question
Speaker 2: gone halfway through.
Speaker 1: Asking it, I don't remember.
Speaker 3: On the same page, I was gonna say, what, in
Speaker 3: terms of making weight, do you sit generally on weight
Speaker 3: throughout time or do you have to do a weight
Speaker 3: management process in the lead into fights? Like how much
Speaker 3: do you normally when you're not in lockdown and.
Speaker 2: Letting it get away from you? Is it a process
Speaker 2: for you?
Speaker 1: Again, this is a good question because boxing from a
Speaker 1: new age, you'd always hear the guys. I'd listen to
Speaker 1: the guys in the gym and they'd be like, just
Speaker 1: you know, just kind of starve yourself and just suck
Speaker 1: on the icy poles and have a lolly here and
Speaker 1: there to get you, like it was ridiculous, Like I
Speaker 1: should not have been listening to these guys, Like we
Speaker 1: just just didn't know any better, right, and so it's
Speaker 1: been a bit of a learning journeys. But I used
Speaker 1: to just do that. I used to like, you know,
Speaker 1: not hardly anything. And I struggle cutting the weight because
Speaker 1: my body's just holding onto everything that I put into
Speaker 1: it because it's in survival mode. And then I'd finally
Speaker 1: cut the weight after just sweating it all off and
Speaker 1: wear a plastic bag so a sweatsuit basically every single
Speaker 1: day for training and then not hydrate myself.
Speaker 3: It was actually ridiculous, and like a high performance sport,
Speaker 3: I always think and I'm like, how the fuck. I
Speaker 3: once went into the sauna with my mate Courtney when
Speaker 3: she was cutting for her final like weight cut for
Speaker 3: the fight, and I was like, I'm going to jump
Speaker 3: in with you and just see how I feel, just
Speaker 3: because I wasn't fighting on that fight, and fuck it
Speaker 3: made me feel like I'm like how does she? And
Speaker 3: then fight a state titled fight? Now, like how do
Speaker 3: you perform at your optimal when you get no food
Speaker 3: in your body and you're dehydrating yourself?
Speaker 2: And you're starving yourself.
Speaker 1: That's it. That's it. I remember doing a sauna and
Speaker 1: steam room sessions where I go like five blocks to
Speaker 1: twenty minutes, I'm already dehydrated, i haven't drunk water, and
Speaker 1: I'm like crawling out of it afterwards. This as a teenager,
Speaker 1: so I again, I could use that when I'm not
Speaker 1: making sense. So when I forget your questions, I can
Speaker 1: say because of that, you joke about it, But honestly,
Speaker 1: it's like I really wish that they were like now
Speaker 1: it's getting better, I hope and in every gym that
Speaker 1: there's more knowledge around it, because yeah, it was. It
Speaker 1: was ridiculous. So when I would finally cut the weight
Speaker 1: after not eating hardly anything, I would binge. I would
Speaker 1: binge hard, and I'd put it all on like easily.
Speaker 1: And so it was this constant yo yo for me
Speaker 1: over the years. After that experience where I went up
Speaker 1: almost fifteen kilos over my division, I started really taking
Speaker 1: it seriously and thinking, right, let's you know, work with
Speaker 1: a dietician to start coming up with a bit more
Speaker 1: of a plan and so, you know, and fighting more
Speaker 1: often through the year. Kept that. Basically, I wanted to
Speaker 1: say about three four kilos over max, because then I
Speaker 1: knew ways that I could manipulate what I was eating,
Speaker 1: not eating any less. I was still eating the same amount,
Speaker 1: but I'd go and like have lessons of salt content
Speaker 1: in the last five days because you hold onto more water.
Speaker 1: Just things like that. And I feel amazing getting into
Speaker 1: the ring because I wasn't dehydrating myself and I wasn't
Speaker 1: taking away food and important things for energy. It's just, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's crazy there people even a sauna. I won't use
Speaker 1: a sauna now before the night before I fight or anything,
Speaker 1: because I've seen studies that actually it does affect your
Speaker 1: performance the next day. So I really will just make
Speaker 1: sure I eat the right things, eat well throughout my
Speaker 1: time so that I'm doing it responsibly. And I feel
Speaker 1: amazing And it really made the difference. That was one
Speaker 1: of the major changes that I had Tokyo going into Paris,
Speaker 1: and I feel like it made a massive difference. And
Speaker 1: now I'm in a healthy mindset. I guess like I
Speaker 1: haven't weighed myself post Olympics. I haven't got my next
Speaker 1: fight date whatever at the moment, and I haven't I
Speaker 1: haven't needed to check the scales, and I'm learning to
Speaker 1: you know, eat well, fuel myself, fuel carbs before a
Speaker 1: training session, protein posts to make sure that you're recovering
Speaker 1: your muscles and things like that. So just just learning
Speaker 1: about the different foods that you can eat and just
Speaker 1: making the right choices.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Ron, all right, tell me, so tell me about
Speaker 3: the Tokyo first.
Speaker 1: Hmmm, yes, so so obviously qualified getting go over to Tokyo.
Speaker 1: It's actually before that. We're in training camp and we're
Speaker 1: just you know, we've we had to fight so hard
Speaker 1: to be able to get there was a couple of
Speaker 1: us on the team. We had to fight so hard
Speaker 1: to be able to leave Australia early. We hadn't fought
Speaker 1: in eighteen months since the last the qualifiers to the Olympics.
Speaker 1: Were like, we need to get some sparring or something internationally.
Speaker 1: So luckily the last four weeks were able to head
Speaker 1: off to the US and then to Japan a little
Speaker 1: bit early to be able to do some training with
Speaker 1: other people, which is needed in boxing. You need to
Speaker 1: be able to push yourself against the best, like yes,
Speaker 1: I could spa. Guys and men they fight differently to women,
Speaker 1: and often sometimes they might be a bit strong, you
Speaker 1: might have hesitation in certain ways. So I wanted to
Speaker 1: fight well, fight spa people in my division you know
Speaker 1: around the world. That's they're going to push you to
Speaker 1: be your best. And so finally we do do that
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks before, which wasn't enough, but it
Speaker 1: was whatever. I mean. Harry Garside, my teammate, he did
Speaker 1: the same preparation. I guess I probably didn't probably did
Speaker 1: know exactly the same. He did more responsible with his weight,
Speaker 1: but he he won a bronze medal with the same preparation.
Speaker 1: But for me, it just it just wasn't was an
Speaker 1: idea and there's no excuses there. It just is what
Speaker 1: it is, and it helped me be better for Paris.
Speaker 1: But anyway, get over there. The draw is done and
Speaker 1: I'm up against this woman from Panama. Hadn't fought her before,
Speaker 1: watched her stuff, and she's She's just got a bit
Speaker 1: of a different style. She's Southport, left handed, she's very long,
Speaker 1: and I had this certain tactics that I'd work with
Speaker 1: my coach going into the fight. It didn't work at all.
Speaker 1: I just nothing was working for me. I didn't fight
Speaker 1: my best at all getting into that ring, and it
Speaker 1: was weird. The stadium completely empty. There was a couple
Speaker 1: of people from each team, like a couple of teammates,
Speaker 1: and this massive stadium, and these fake applauds happening over
Speaker 1: the speaker at random intervals, not at the right time.
Speaker 1: So when there's nothing happening, there's a big cheer, and
Speaker 1: when there's a big combo or something, it's just.
Speaker 2: Weird.
Speaker 1: And like you, I'm not really noticing that in the ring,
Speaker 1: to be honest, but it was a bit of a
Speaker 1: different environment. You finally hear of the Olympic Games, everything
Speaker 1: I've dreamed of, and then it's just silence, and my
Speaker 1: performance just it wasn't what it needed to be. Was
Speaker 1: I knew I was capable of so much more so
Speaker 1: it was I was just kind of gutted that that
Speaker 1: was it. And so at the end of the fight,
Speaker 1: the Panamanian's hand was raised, she raised, she won the fight,
Speaker 1: and I thought in a different way again, I was
Speaker 1: just I was so upset because I finally made it
Speaker 1: to the Olympics. I dream of mine come true, and
Speaker 1: I didn't fight well at all. I knew I was
Speaker 1: better than like what I what I put out there,
Speaker 1: and people were watching me at home, and you know,
Speaker 1: people expected all of this so much of me, and
Speaker 1: I just I was just so upset. As soon as
Speaker 1: I stepped out of the ring, I was like, I've
Speaker 1: got so much more. I remember seeing to myself like
Speaker 1: I need to put everything I've got into Paris. Like
Speaker 1: I straight away started reflecting what else do I need
Speaker 1: to do? And then you know, I get out into
Speaker 1: the back and then I remember there's the warm up
Speaker 1: area where we would just I was just excitedly warmed up.
Speaker 1: There was these big stairs going up there, but I
Speaker 1: remember after my fire, I was just looked up at
Speaker 1: these stairs, so I can't do it. I was just
Speaker 1: so upset. I couldn't even walk up the stairs. I
Speaker 1: was just towel over my head, like what. I don't know,
Speaker 1: It's just it's just different. I guess they go into
Speaker 1: the ring with his mindset of like it's life or death,
Speaker 1: like really put so much on ourselves to just be
Speaker 1: our best and just for all the all the work
Speaker 1: up that had come to that. I was like, that's
Speaker 1: what I put out there. And I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: so I fel hard to be able to stay in
Speaker 1: the village, to be able to cheer on my teammate
Speaker 1: Harry to win the medal because I said, the stadium's
Speaker 1: empty boxing, it's all on the judges. There's a guy
Speaker 1: judges around the outside. If I'm screaming every time he
Speaker 1: you know, lands a little shot or a big shot
Speaker 1: or whatever, purely that will help. So I was trying
Speaker 1: to I was trying to convince the chef to mission
Speaker 1: and he was like, all right, just say what because
Speaker 1: everyone at that time you had to leave within them
Speaker 1: was at twenty four or forty eight hours you had
Speaker 1: to be out back on a play into Australia. So
Speaker 1: I was very grateful I could stay around and watch
Speaker 1: him and he ends up with in the middle and yeah,
Speaker 1: to be a part of that was amazing and pushed
Speaker 1: me to be better. So this time around, I got
Speaker 1: home three years now, we've got till Paris, which is
Speaker 1: obs a much shorter time than usual. But I really
Speaker 1: had to reflect, really like on what I needed to
Speaker 1: do to be better. The weight making thing was a
Speaker 1: big one for me, being responsible with my weight and
Speaker 1: really just eating the right things. Another big one for
Speaker 1: me was sleep. I'm a terrible sleeper and just when
Speaker 1: there's a lot of a lot going on. My mind's
Speaker 1: always a million miles an hour. Go to bed, and
Speaker 1: I if I just say let's just lay there straight away,
Speaker 1: I wake myself back up thinking about everything. So I
Speaker 1: had to really get a good sleep routine, make sure
Speaker 1: I was going to bed at the same night and
Speaker 1: same night, the same time, and waiting up, you know,
Speaker 1: same time. Just giving myself a good, good routine around that,
Speaker 1: really focusing and that, and that helped a big time
Speaker 1: as well. That's the biggest form of recovery and helps
Speaker 1: everything performance, all the rest of it. Uh. And then yeah,
Speaker 1: I think again. Another thing was be like utilizing the
Speaker 1: people I have around me. So I kind of just
Speaker 1: always have this all right, I's all right, I can
Speaker 1: do it by myself, you know, just you have this.
Speaker 1: I don't know you just I guess it's hard to
Speaker 1: reach out for help in different ways. And so I thought, right, well,
Speaker 1: I've got I've got this dietician that I'm going to
Speaker 1: keep in contact with. I've got a strength and conditioning
Speaker 1: coach that I can start. We can just start communicating more, right,
Speaker 1: check in every you know, every week or or whatever.
Speaker 1: Make sure I'm talking to them properly and uh yes,
Speaker 1: sports psychologists never really use that. Like I just thought,
Speaker 1: I'm fine. No, we worked massively on mindfulness and practicing
Speaker 1: gratitude and having a bit of a routine coming into
Speaker 1: the fight, like what am I very much? I like
Speaker 1: it right there, and then I get obsessed with it,
Speaker 1: so like I go into the go to the to
Speaker 1: the fights two and a half hours before it. Why
Speaker 1: because I just want to make sure that I'm not
Speaker 1: missing anything, people aren't getting stopped or I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't want to I don't want to hate rushing
Speaker 1: and being like, oh my god, I'm gonna get there.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna fight. Like no, I'll get there two and
Speaker 1: a half hours early. Go to the back, headphones on, go,
Speaker 1: lay down, play some Sudoku or whatever else. It's solitary
Speaker 1: and yeah, and then I'm very like on a timer,
Speaker 1: like right, this is the time I'm going to start
Speaker 1: warming up. This is the you know, like I get
Speaker 1: and I get really like around my schedules once I
Speaker 1: have them, but maybe a bit too clean on to them.
Speaker 1: Once they work, I'm like, bow, I've got to do
Speaker 1: the exact same thing. Because of boxing. Well, we're in
Speaker 1: Olympic boxing, we fight over a multiple day, so we
Speaker 1: weigh in that morning, and we fight the same day,
Speaker 1: and then we you know, next day, we fight way
Speaker 1: in again the next morning. So if one coach wraps
Speaker 1: my hands, they will do it. They have to do
Speaker 1: it for the rest of the competition because if I won,
Speaker 1: then why would I change it. So I just get
Speaker 1: too much with it, Like I'll have like a like
Speaker 1: a nose before I fight, and like I know it
Speaker 1: was a Gatorader something gatorade in my in my bottle,
Speaker 1: but then the same coach that did that has to
Speaker 1: do it again. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, guys, It's just
Speaker 1: and they're like, it's fine, we understand, we know how
Speaker 1: you work. I'm like, it's just I need this to
Speaker 1: be the same.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I get it, one hundred percent get it. What's
Speaker 2: it like?
Speaker 3: So for people who don't, there's there's few sports where
Speaker 3: you are the only person responsible for your performance. And
Speaker 3: I feel like, like, I so I know the question
Speaker 3: about I'm trying to ask it in a way that
Speaker 3: people understand, Like what's it like to go in have
Speaker 3: that observation of yourself that I don't fight like this.
Speaker 3: I haven't done my best, but pinpointing what made me fight,
Speaker 3: like because I used to do it. I sometimes I
Speaker 3: would go in to fights and I'm like, why am
Speaker 3: I not me? When I'm in this fight and I've
Speaker 3: sparred so well and I've done this with the boys
Speaker 3: and I'm lit and I've been this person in training,
Speaker 3: and then all of a sudden, I come into this
Speaker 3: fight and I'm like, and now I can't control myself.
Speaker 2: Now I can't have this.
Speaker 3: It doesn't feel the same, and I don't know I'm
Speaker 3: the only one that can fix that.
Speaker 2: Where does that come from?
Speaker 1: Yeah? For sure, because as well, I think it was
Speaker 1: kind of for me realizing that like it it would
Speaker 1: be my nerves. When I was more nervous and things,
Speaker 1: I'd put more pressure on myself. I'd tie myself up
Speaker 1: before I even got into the ring, and then I
Speaker 1: get in there and I just I'd be desperate to try,
Speaker 1: like you know, and I wasn't fighting like I spied
Speaker 1: really well and I've done everything I wanted to do,
Speaker 1: and then I get in the ring and I just
Speaker 1: just oh, it'd be too much, Like I just get
Speaker 1: out there and yeah, it wasn't doing everything that I
Speaker 1: kind of set out to do. So. I think the
Speaker 1: routine and the little things like that that I do
Speaker 1: before my fights helped me. The mindfulness stuff helped me massively,
Speaker 1: because again, I just I'm not always I'm not an
Speaker 1: like to be fair, not like always always a confident person.
Speaker 1: I've gained a lot of confidence through this sport and
Speaker 1: the journey that I've been on, but I have to,
Speaker 1: like doubt to always be in my head, like, oh,
Speaker 1: what if this happens? What like what if I don't fight? Well,
Speaker 1: what if this? But like I've just got to remind myself.
Speaker 1: I'm like, why am I thinking this? It's because I
Speaker 1: care about it because I want to win. And Okay,
Speaker 1: like right, just let those thoughts go, right, they're just
Speaker 1: to try to visualize them just going going away, going
Speaker 1: down a stream, or if floating off on a cloud. Whatever.
Speaker 1: Just give myself a moment, right, I sit myself down,
Speaker 1: Just do a little bit of box breathing a couple even,
Speaker 1: or just like three deep breaths, bang my chest three times.
Speaker 1: That's a good one. I'm like hard that kind of
Speaker 1: I heard that resets. I don't know some kind of thing,
Speaker 1: but I just stick to it if that doesn't work.
Speaker 1: And then I sit there and I go, all right,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go notice what's around me? So I go
Speaker 1: through my senses. What's five things I can see around me?
Speaker 1: I'm such an unobservant person. I won't. I walk into
Speaker 1: a room and I'm like, I didn't even notice that
Speaker 1: person's there whatever, just because I'm just I don't know.
Speaker 1: I guess I'm just focused on one thing. I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 1: what can I see around me? Five things? Four things
Speaker 1: I can hear, three things I can touch, two things
Speaker 1: I can smell, one thing I can taste. I go
Speaker 1: through that after my breath. So I'm like, wow, I'm calm,
Speaker 1: but I'm focused. I feel good. And before I get
Speaker 1: into the ring, and in my whole preparation, I do
Speaker 1: a lot of video analysis. And what I mean by
Speaker 1: that is I'll go through fights for myself. I'll watch
Speaker 1: myself fight and look at things I need to do
Speaker 1: and what, you know, tactics and stuff I was doing
Speaker 1: there and what I could have done better. But not
Speaker 1: only only that. I'd have a list of my potential opponents.
Speaker 1: I'd have them all down and my division and i'd write,
Speaker 1: you know, all sorts of things, strengths and weaknesses, whatever
Speaker 1: tactics that I go into that fight. So when I
Speaker 1: go into to I've drawn someone for my fight. So right,
Speaker 1: I'm fighting this woman here from this country. Right, this
Speaker 1: is what I need to work on, and I'll narrow
Speaker 1: it down to three things, no more than three because
Speaker 1: then I'm two. There's too much going on. Three things
Speaker 1: that I need to focus on for this fight, and
Speaker 1: it could be for myself for them. You know, what
Speaker 1: are three tactics I'm going to go in with And
Speaker 1: I'll narrow it down from like a sentence to like
Speaker 1: one word. It'll be like body if I need to
Speaker 1: like focus on more body shots. So then you know whatever,
Speaker 1: I have these three words, and I've done my mindfulness,
Speaker 1: I've done my breathing. Right, what's those three things? Body?
Speaker 1: I don't know. I can't think of anything at the moment.
Speaker 1: Very very good. But yeah, so and then I have
Speaker 1: those three things. That's all I need to do. I
Speaker 1: know what I need to do, and I can't work
Speaker 1: on you. You know what what gave me strength? I'd come
Speaker 1: up with. That's actually that's actually what I haven't talked about.
Speaker 1: So I come from my My mum is Maori, so
Speaker 1: we come from obviously mighty heritage and come from warriors,
Speaker 1: and I kind of wanted to come up with a
Speaker 1: word that brought that in, that warrior mentality, that would also,
Speaker 1: you know, give me strength and build me up because
Speaker 1: I want to go in I'll go into the ring
Speaker 1: with all the confidence. I want to build myself up.
Speaker 1: And there's one word that I'd used that I'd just
Speaker 1: be like right, just you know, like I'd say it
Speaker 1: out loud and like that that would build me up
Speaker 1: and then I'd be ready, I'm focused, I'm not no,
Speaker 1: my heart's not grazing a million miles an hour and
Speaker 1: all the rest of it. So, yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker 1: I'll go guy, yeah, for a while, don't I But
Speaker 1: you know, you get there eventually.
Speaker 2: I love that. That was really valuable to listen to.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 1: Oh it was theme.
Speaker 2: How was Paris different to Tokyo?
Speaker 1: Yeah, so again, all those things that I talked about,
Speaker 1: the support network, the mindfulness that the you know, practicing
Speaker 1: that routine that I was going into the fight, the eating,
Speaker 1: the sleep. Just I just wanted to do tick off
Speaker 1: all the boxes that I possibly could that I'd learned
Speaker 1: along the way. I'd learned so much you can't learn
Speaker 1: at all, but I knew things that that I can
Speaker 1: change to better myself. Those one percenters, as cliche as
Speaker 1: that is, but I yeah, I feel like that really helped.
Speaker 1: I built myself but well, and I practiced that a
Speaker 1: lot through the journey. I think what for me, I
Speaker 1: kind of realized that. I was like, oh, wow, I'm
Speaker 1: getting better. So We're to the twenty twenty three World
Speaker 1: Championships and at that tournament, I'm I've won my first
Speaker 1: five whatever, I won my fights before I'm going into
Speaker 1: the To get into the medal rounds, to get into
Speaker 1: the semifinals, I need to beat Panama, the same girl
Speaker 1: that I lost to at the Olympics. And I thought, right,
Speaker 1: this isn't a test, you know, Rasis. And it's funny
Speaker 1: because I actually got the opportunity to spa her. We
Speaker 1: just got to We got to the so we got
Speaker 1: to New Delhi, that's where the World Championships were. We
Speaker 1: got there a few days early and set up a
Speaker 1: little spa with her. So, okay, we go. So so
Speaker 1: we're in the gym and I'm working on a few things.
Speaker 1: But I was just what I was doing is I
Speaker 1: was trying a few different things, but I'll do them once.
Speaker 1: But she got the better of my spa. She she
Speaker 1: would have won. If it was a fight, she would
Speaker 1: have won it. I was like, okay, but but I
Speaker 1: but I noticed things. I was like, right, that worked,
Speaker 1: that didn't. That worked, I didn't. So then then I
Speaker 1: drew her. I didn't know it was going to actually
Speaker 1: fight her at the World's Okay. Well, luckily we got
Speaker 1: that spiring session in that was perfect and I it
Speaker 1: was a close fight, but I but I got the
Speaker 1: win and my hand was raised and I jumped like
Speaker 1: five feet in the air.
Speaker 2: I was.
Speaker 1: This is this is it. I've improved, I've worked so
Speaker 1: hard and this just shows that. And ended up going
Speaker 1: to the final. I lost my split decision. It was
Speaker 1: a countback split decision in the final against the hometown girl.
Speaker 1: All over the posters and stuff and whatever is it is?
Speaker 1: I thought, I want it. This happens in boxing all
Speaker 1: the time. It's such a it's up to the judges basically.
Speaker 1: But but to get her coach and the Indian Performer
Speaker 1: high performance director apologizing to me, I was like, well, oh, anyway, anyway,
Speaker 1: lost the split decision, almost world champion there, but I
Speaker 1: got a silver and I just thought this, this shows
Speaker 1: that I've come so far. But I also put a
Speaker 1: bit more pressure on me, right because they were like, whoa,
Speaker 1: You're winning medals at the Olympic division the year before
Speaker 1: the Olympics, like you gotta win, you gotta win a
Speaker 1: medal now, So there's more pressure on me. But I
Speaker 1: think all that I've learned it helped me get through.
Speaker 1: I'm just practiced with my gratitude. Was what am I
Speaker 1: grateful for today? Instead of just always focusing on, Oh,
Speaker 1: you know, I've got to win, I've got to do this,
Speaker 1: I got to do that. No, No, what am I
Speaker 1: grateful for today? Sit there, Sit back and think all
Speaker 1: right again? Look around like what's around me? Like try
Speaker 1: and notice and enjoy those little moments as well. So
Speaker 1: that helped a lot. But coming into Paris, I was
Speaker 1: I was so ready, so ready. I put in everything,
Speaker 1: I had, everything I know, I didn't leave any stone
Speaker 1: unturned or anything like that. Honestly, were in a training
Speaker 1: camp before that in Germany, and in this training camp,
Speaker 1: I'm like, let's just get there already. I'm so so
Speaker 1: over training I just I was so ready to get
Speaker 1: into that ring. And we head to Paris and all
Speaker 1: was good. I'm excited with the drawer. They do the draw.
Speaker 1: For some reason, I get really nervous around the draw.
Speaker 1: It's just like faked, Oh am I going to fight.
Speaker 1: I've studied all of these I've studied the crap out
Speaker 1: of all of these girls that I could possibly fight,
Speaker 1: and I had done thousands of sparring rounds and I've
Speaker 1: fought many times. I've had I think eighty nine or
Speaker 1: no ninety five international fights, so something like that. Anyway,
Speaker 1: I fought a lot of these girls and out of
Speaker 1: the list, there was only two that I'd never worked
Speaker 1: with the pool, I hadn't sparred or fought. And the
Speaker 1: drawer came out and I've got them both. The first
Speaker 1: two rounds, I was like that extra, just that unknown.
Speaker 1: I was like, okay, that makes me very nervous. It's okay,
Speaker 1: like I've done everything I can for this. Uh So
Speaker 1: I've got a Mexican first up, and she was shorter
Speaker 1: than me, which is odd because in my division I'm
Speaker 1: actually one of the shorter one seventy five killers. They're
Speaker 1: all quite tall and she's short of than me. I'm like, okay,
Speaker 1: I've got the reach here, let's go. And but I
Speaker 1: knew she was tough. I knew she would just keep
Speaker 1: coming forward. I've watched her fight before and a few
Speaker 1: people had actually mentioned to me, like, don't underestimate her.
Speaker 1: She's she's tough and then strong, and like she just
Speaker 1: she's relentless. She won't let you off the hook. And well, right,
Speaker 1: that's fine. I went into that fight like it was
Speaker 1: the final. Every fight with for me, it was the final.
Speaker 1: I wanted to I needed to win that to get
Speaker 1: past anything else. So it was the final. And well,
Speaker 1: straight up, I knew she she did what I thought
Speaker 1: she would. She came at me, and I used my feet,
Speaker 1: got around the ring and tried to you know, punch
Speaker 1: and move. And then there was a point where like
Speaker 1: she kind of like at me and I threw this
Speaker 1: right hook and I like moved out to the side
Speaker 1: at the same time. So it was a quick like
Speaker 1: to make her fall into into the ropes. And it worked,
Speaker 1: and I was like, brilliant, We'll do that again, you know, fight, fight,
Speaker 1: and do it again. The right hook off fell into
Speaker 1: the ropes again. I was like, we're just gonna keep
Speaker 1: doing this is perfect and I really enjoyed that. I
Speaker 1: had a great fight, won every round. I got my
Speaker 1: hand raised there, and yes, it wasn't a repeat of
Speaker 1: Togyo that was in my head before. I'm like, don't repeack.
Speaker 1: You know, what if you lose again, what if you
Speaker 1: miss that? I know it's not in my control. I
Speaker 1: just thought, I'm gonna go out there and do the
Speaker 1: best that I can. I know I can do it,
Speaker 1: and yeah, got won the fire and I was just
Speaker 1: absolutely stoked. Then I thought, right, I'm going to enjoy
Speaker 1: this moment for the next couple of hours and then
Speaker 1: I'm gonna reset because it was I had a few
Speaker 1: days in between the Olympics. They spread it out. It's
Speaker 1: Ober two week period and I had to win four
Speaker 1: fights to get the gold. So that's fine, I've got
Speaker 1: I've got a couple of days that I'm going to
Speaker 1: just not back in, but I'm going to go see
Speaker 1: my part. I know who ended up coming over and
Speaker 1: just you know, enjoy this little moment. Next, I had
Speaker 1: to reset because I was actually drawn against the Moroccan
Speaker 1: and she is the super heavyweight world champion. She's been
Speaker 1: that for years. I don't even know when she lost
Speaker 1: her last fight. She never loses. She's massive, and I thought,
Speaker 1: all right, okay, so we're gonna obviously don't want to
Speaker 1: stand there and get hit. I've got to be able
Speaker 1: to move out of the way because she's strong and
Speaker 1: she would throw all her weight into these punches. So
Speaker 1: when she when she gets someone, it shows, and that
Speaker 1: can sway the judges like that, especially when you get
Speaker 1: a hit early on on you and I just say, oh, well,
Speaker 1: you know they're probably going to be watching her for
Speaker 1: the rest of the fight, so you're going to make
Speaker 1: a good impression early on. So yeah, getting into that fight,
Speaker 1: I was actually going to go in a certain way.
Speaker 1: I was going to go in where I was just
Speaker 1: going inside and because she was so big and just
Speaker 1: working as hard as I could for the but you know,
Speaker 1: in the inside and staying in there. And my tactics changed. Actually,
Speaker 1: just before we went out, I saw the girl that
Speaker 1: she beat to get in. She was fighting her at
Speaker 1: long range and she was about the same height as me.
Speaker 1: And I fight very well long I fight, I fight
Speaker 1: well both. But you know, I was like, right, I
Speaker 1: can use my foot feet try and find the opportunities here,
Speaker 1: and then when I see those opportunities, get in the
Speaker 1: get in the inside, mix it up. But I don't know.
Speaker 1: I'm home, and I getting too technical. I'm trying to like,
Speaker 1: I love it.
Speaker 2: I'm loving it. I'm hanging off every word.
Speaker 1: Because also because I'm literally back, I'm thinking of me
Speaker 1: in the ring, like I'm back in this moment, I'm
Speaker 1: like trying to trying to paint the picture. But anyway,
Speaker 1: I actually from from the start, it was just like
Speaker 1: a moment where everything clicked, my feet, my hands, everything,
Speaker 1: and I was like I was punching her and I
Speaker 1: wasn't getting punched back, and I was like, this is
Speaker 1: It's all clicking together. It's like everything I'd ever done
Speaker 1: to prepare for this was for this moment. That was
Speaker 1: my favorite fight ever. I enjoyed that so much. I
Speaker 1: just and watching the footage back is so funny because
Speaker 1: I might here like you know, looking up right up
Speaker 1: at her like I just look so but I just
Speaker 1: it just all came together and I got my hand
Speaker 1: raised again there and I was like, holy shit, I
Speaker 1: have just secured myself a medal for Australia created history.
Speaker 1: What the hell like this. It was just incredible. So
Speaker 1: I got out of the rings straight away and they
Speaker 1: actually through to the media bit and I just like,
Speaker 1: the guy has gone to interview me and I've grabbed
Speaker 1: his mic off him and I didn't realize they did it.
Speaker 1: I was just so excited. There's so much adrenaline and god,
Speaker 1: I just started talking my absolutely heart out and I
Speaker 1: didn't realize that he's asking me questions. You can't hear
Speaker 1: him because I'm not sharing the mic. I've just got
Speaker 1: it here and I'm just ready to go and I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm going to war and next fight. I'm everything into it,
Speaker 1: like let's go. And just a few people watch that bag.
Speaker 1: That's what probably I think more people in Australia probably
Speaker 1: saw that interview than actually the fights. I don't know.
Speaker 1: That's what I got coming to the more because I
Speaker 1: just thought it was the funniest thing. A few people
Speaker 1: gave me like a little karaoke mic as well. Afterwards.
Speaker 1: They're like, you know, this is your own one, you
Speaker 1: can have this. I love this.
Speaker 2: I love hearing this.
Speaker 3: I am I've gone covering goosebumps right now. I feel
Speaker 3: like I'm there. I want to go is it. Can
Speaker 3: I go google that video?
Speaker 1: Can you can't? Yeah? Sure, But it's just it's so
Speaker 1: crazy even just thinking about that then and thinking about
Speaker 1: this really shy kid and to that moment they're like
Speaker 1: taking the mic and having that that you know, I
Speaker 1: don't know, it's whatever about me, just the possession to
Speaker 1: just take that mic and it's mine now. Ah yeah.
Speaker 1: It just it shows how far I've come in this journey,
Speaker 1: which is where it's pretty cool as well, this journey.
Speaker 3: I love this and I love how much you've shared
Speaker 3: the like the detail of how it is, because it
Speaker 3: just highlights how technical, how adaptable we have to be,
Speaker 3: how it's not just about working on your own craft,
Speaker 3: but also sitting there with a number of tools at
Speaker 3: your level, a number of tools and strategies that is
Speaker 3: beyond comprehension.
Speaker 2: And in the middle of knowing.
Speaker 3: All of that, you've got to decide which ones are
Speaker 3: appropriate in a split second, all in a pre preparation moment.
Speaker 3: And then also when you step into the ring, you
Speaker 3: have to make a decision of am I following that
Speaker 3: what I thought was going to be the best angle,
Speaker 3: or do I need to.
Speaker 2: Adapt and change? And it's fucking exciting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's such a fast paced chess game boxing. You've
Speaker 1: got to see be able to see what's coming, but
Speaker 1: also you know, doing what you need to do and
Speaker 1: not getting hit and moving out of the way and
Speaker 1: trying to win each round. Because there's three rounds we
Speaker 1: fight three three minute rounds. I'm going to rest in between.
Speaker 1: So you know, your coach can give you a certain
Speaker 1: amount of feedback, which helps massively, but you've also got
Speaker 1: to be very independent to be able to figure it
Speaker 1: all out for yourself in the ring. You can't wait
Speaker 1: a whole round, waste a whole round for your coach
Speaker 1: to tell you what don't do that, what are you
Speaker 1: doing because that's one whole round out of three rounds
Speaker 1: and the judges are probably watching that your opponent now,
Speaker 1: So you've really got to figure it out for yourself. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's actually insane. Sometimes I'm like, oh, this is such
Speaker 1: a yeah, such a crazy sport. But I mean they're
Speaker 1: each sport has their own massive challenges, and I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's just boxing.
Speaker 3: I just think there's there's so many moving parts to
Speaker 3: boxing that it does take years and years and years
Speaker 3: before you even learn what there is to learn like
Speaker 3: I know that in some of my later years, like
Speaker 3: the last fights I had, which is a few years
Speaker 3: ago now, but getting to stages with my coach where
Speaker 3: I was like, oh, you know, he's bestowing new stuff
Speaker 3: on me that he had not let me do before.
Speaker 3: And you kind of think, oh, you can't. You don't
Speaker 3: do that because it's because it's wrong, not wrong, but
Speaker 3: that's not how we do it. And it's like, no,
Speaker 3: he just needs to be able to trust me with
Speaker 3: one skill set first, and then once he knows that
Speaker 3: I've nailed and I have the capacity for more, he
Speaker 3: gives it to me. And I was just like, fucking hell,
Speaker 3: it's been a decade in this sport and I'm still
Speaker 3: learning brand new things.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, That's the thing I also love about boxing
Speaker 1: is the fact that no one's ever perfect everything. There's
Speaker 1: always things to work on. But not only that, it's
Speaker 1: not just you don't have to be a certain build
Speaker 1: or you know, you can be short, tall, whatever kind
Speaker 1: of body shape you use it to your advantage. Like
Speaker 1: I don't have long arms. I'm a bit shorter than
Speaker 1: in my division. I guess like sometimes it's good to
Speaker 1: be long so you can get more range. And stuff,
Speaker 1: But no, I use what I have to my advantage.
Speaker 1: I'm more explosive. I'm usually a lot faster and I
Speaker 1: can I can make that work, and you just you're
Speaker 1: do you make it work? But not only that as well. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm on the sport now. But it doesn't matter what
Speaker 1: age you started. I started young. It was great for me,
Speaker 1: but there's some people in my team that have started
Speaker 1: in their twenties on even I think started yeah, like
Speaker 1: late twenties even thirties that went to the Olympics with us.
Speaker 1: So it's it's yeah, you're never You're never too old
Speaker 1: to start anything. Whatever your goal or challenge is, You're
Speaker 1: never too old to start. Just get out there and
Speaker 1: have a go.
Speaker 2: Oh I love that. What's what's next for you?
Speaker 1: What's next? Is a question I ask myself all the time. No,
Speaker 1: so it's it's obviously been yeah months now since the Olympics.
Speaker 1: I don't want to count, but I really just told myself,
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm going to take in this moment. Should
Speaker 1: I should actually go into the my my semi final,
Speaker 1: the fight that I actually lost, actually to kind of
Speaker 1: paint the picture, because really, like I went into this
Speaker 1: fight and this one was at the Rolling Gaross in Paris.
Speaker 1: It was you know, Serena and Williams never got punched
Speaker 1: in the face there, so you know, I just feel
Speaker 1: like that that's pretty good. So Rolling Gaross, there's massive crowd.
Speaker 1: I fighting this this woman from China. She's actually beaten
Speaker 1: me a couple of times in the past. She's one
Speaker 1: of the smartest fighters I've ever come across it. She
Speaker 1: adapts really well in the ring, which is it was
Speaker 1: challenging because so I came out in the first round,
Speaker 1: I had all the right tactics. I won the fight
Speaker 1: on all judges school sorr, I won the round on
Speaker 1: all judges schoorecards. She came out the second ring, the
Speaker 1: second ring, Oh my god, see what am I doing now?
Speaker 1: The second round. She came out the second round, and
Speaker 1: she knew to smuggle me a bit so to because
Speaker 1: I was fighting well long, I was picking her atha,
Speaker 1: I was doing all the things. She was like, okay,
Speaker 1: don't let her do that again. I'm gonna hold her
Speaker 1: and try it, you know. So she'd try to kind
Speaker 1: of like, yeah, not allow me to fight my fight,
Speaker 1: and it got messy, which worked well for her. So
Speaker 1: I started, like you know, tangling up more and grabbing
Speaker 1: my hand, and it takes a lot of effort to
Speaker 1: try and get out of those clinches and try and
Speaker 1: fight my way out of it. And I thought I
Speaker 1: thought I did. Okay, I thought I did all right.
Speaker 1: I didn't know how the round went until I went
Speaker 1: back to my coach in the corner. So the coaches
Speaker 1: they see the scores. Actually between each round, they come
Speaker 1: up with the scores, and it came up. My coach goes,
Speaker 1: you're even going into the last round, So meeting she'd
Speaker 1: won that round on all George Judges school cards. And
Speaker 1: my heart sank a little bit because I thought I
Speaker 1: thought I would have got a couple of them. But okay,
Speaker 1: let's just put everything I possibly have into this, like
Speaker 1: I'm just leaving. I'm gonna leave it all in the ring,
Speaker 1: and I did. I just went out there. I had
Speaker 1: a bit of a blood nose as well, just you know,
Speaker 1: it happened. Sometimes my nose does bleed a little bit,
Speaker 1: but whatever, So I'm gone out there and I put
Speaker 1: it all that. I had nothing left in the tank
Speaker 1: at all, fought my heart out. At the end of
Speaker 1: the fight, her hand got raised and you know what,
Speaker 1: like this is, this is, this moment is crazy to me.
Speaker 1: I haven't had a sad moment. I didn't have it.
Speaker 1: I wasn't sad. I wasn't I wasn't upset. I knew
Speaker 1: I put it all out there. She got a hand raised,
Speaker 1: I thanked her. It was a it was an awesome fight,
Speaker 1: and I just took that moment. I looked around and
Speaker 1: I stood in the ring for it maybe another love
Speaker 1: thirty seconds or whatever. I've stood there and I looked
Speaker 1: around at this in this stadium. Oh my god, like
Speaker 1: I'm here, I'm on the podium. I don't I don't
Speaker 1: go to the final, but I'm on the podium. I've
Speaker 1: put my all into this whole journey. I'm so so
Speaker 1: proud of myself. And I just honestly, like haven't been
Speaker 1: upset into this day, like which is weird because you know,
Speaker 1: after after I lost, usually you know, gut it and whatever.
Speaker 1: But I just I was proud and I still am
Speaker 1: of everything I put into that journey, everything I left
Speaker 1: in the ring. And to be honest, actually I haven't
Speaker 1: even watched that fight back yet because it's such a
Speaker 1: positive thing for me at the moment and we're all
Speaker 1: our biggest critics. I know when I watch it back,
Speaker 1: I'll be like, oh, why did I do that? Why
Speaker 1: did I do this? But no, I'm not ready for
Speaker 1: that yet. I just feel like once I'm ready, when
Speaker 1: I have another fight set or whatever else, I'll watch
Speaker 1: it back. Obviously you need to do that to improve
Speaker 1: and to learn from those mistakes or whatever else, or
Speaker 1: learn what to show what I did good. But it's
Speaker 1: positive for me and I'm happy. And so I told myself, right,
Speaker 1: I'm going to just take all these opportunities that I
Speaker 1: get and say yes to everything I can and just
Speaker 1: why not do this, do that, like try new things.
Speaker 1: This is my moment to something a little bit different.
Speaker 1: So also I was, I was. I was burnt out. Afterwards,
Speaker 1: I knew I'd left everything in that training camp, everything
Speaker 1: in that ring. I was burnt out, and I knew
Speaker 1: I was not. I told my coach, You're not going
Speaker 1: to see me for a couple of months in the gym,
Speaker 1: Like no, I'm gonna need a bit of a breakup
Speaker 1: of this. So just yeah, it's been it's consumed me
Speaker 1: for a while now. It's been my every single thought.
Speaker 1: So and then like when I get really obsessive about something,
Speaker 1: I've really put my all and set my whole self
Speaker 1: and everything I do into it, Like even to the
Speaker 1: fact that I wouldn't wear like gray clothes or silver
Speaker 1: jeweler or anything, because that would be that would symbolize silk. Second,
Speaker 1: and I wanted to be gold. I wanted to be
Speaker 1: first gold medal of my phone screen. Save. This is
Speaker 1: all for the past like four or five years that
Speaker 1: I'd had this on. So I just thought, I'm want
Speaker 1: to change my screensave it at my dog now, like
Speaker 1: it's time to just be a normal person and just say,
Speaker 1: yesterday's awesome opportunities to go and talk to schools and
Speaker 1: show my medal and really share that journey, because an
Speaker 1: Olympic medal, like although you know people you think like, oh,
Speaker 1: you just put in it a safe like look after it. No,
Speaker 1: my motto or my thing that I've been trying to
Speaker 1: do is really just share it with as many people
Speaker 1: as I can, kids at schools or we just want
Speaker 1: to have a little touch, and I'll make sure everyone
Speaker 1: can have a little hold. And because I imagine that
Speaker 1: like as a kid, if I got to hold Olympic
Speaker 1: medal that would have made such an impact on me.
Speaker 1: So even if it doesn't have give them an Olympic
Speaker 1: goal or whatever, just try your best. I always talk
Speaker 1: to them. I share a lot of lessons that I've
Speaker 1: learned along the way. But it can just even have
Speaker 1: a goal at a sport or whatever, be active, whatever
Speaker 1: it encourages. It'll be something positive. So that I've even
Speaker 1: gone to you know, to to businesses and stuff like that,
Speaker 1: and I've had people come up to me afterwards and
Speaker 1: be like, I haven't like I did you know BJJ.
Speaker 1: I think this woman said, I haven't done it for
Speaker 1: eight years, but I'm going to get back to the gym.
Speaker 1: Or the little girl said to me the other day.
Speaker 1: It's just like I want to be like you and
Speaker 1: I oh my heart, like that is beautiful. Like if
Speaker 1: I can do one you know, small thing for them,
Speaker 1: like it'll just make my day and it will make
Speaker 1: everything worth it.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I've got such a girl crush, such a
Speaker 3: You're such a.
Speaker 2: Wholesome role model.
Speaker 3: The way that you talk about like how you have
Speaker 3: responded to just being present, taking it in and just
Speaker 3: the tone when you say I'm burnt out, I'm having
Speaker 3: a break. There's no judgment, there's no shame, there's just
Speaker 3: this really beautiful acceptance of I put everything in, Like
Speaker 3: I just I can't even explain it, but it's just
Speaker 3: such a.
Speaker 2: Good role model.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Like thank you for that, because there's so
Speaker 3: many women in sport looking for role models and they're
Speaker 3: hard to find, and you're under so much pressure to
Speaker 3: be in that space that it's hard to get through that.
Speaker 3: And like you're through it and you've just remained fucking
Speaker 3: rock solid.
Speaker 2: I'm so proud. I'm so proud to know you.
Speaker 1: Oh, thank you so much. We like, yeah, there's almos
Speaker 1: he still challenges, like I still don't know what's next
Speaker 1: and stuff, but I'm trying to be kind to myself
Speaker 1: and say, you know, you're going through a bed It's okay.
Speaker 1: Like I'm finding that love for the boxing gym again.
Speaker 1: And I was just went away on a camp for
Speaker 1: the USY team again, so you know, doing things like that,
Speaker 1: I'm like, Okay, I'm finding the enjoyment in doing that
Speaker 1: and I love being active and just just and also
Speaker 1: just again just getting back myself do a bit of
Speaker 1: a routine. But again, the thing I want to kind
Speaker 1: of focus on is just trying to better myself a
Speaker 1: little bit in it could be any way, could be
Speaker 1: doing a little course, it could be I don't know,
Speaker 1: even just spending more time with my family at Like
Speaker 1: just doing things to better myself and to continuously grow
Speaker 1: I think is really important. But yeah, don't have a
Speaker 1: fight date yet, probably won't fight for the for the
Speaker 1: rest of the year, to be honest, Like I'm just
Speaker 1: not ready to kind of put myself back into all
Speaker 1: that I know is needed. But i still want to
Speaker 1: go to LA Like that's a big goal, Like and
Speaker 1: I'm not putting, Like I want the goal, right, but
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna put it. It's a b or end
Speaker 1: or if I don't get that, I'm not worth anything. No,
Speaker 1: because I know I've accomplished so much in this sport,
Speaker 1: and like it's not all about accomplishments. It's it's about
Speaker 1: it's about the journey again. I just it's such cliche things,
Speaker 1: but it is, like I just I just want to
Speaker 1: make sure I'm enjoying every part of it, every part.
Speaker 1: I don't love running and stuff, but I do I
Speaker 1: enjoyed the after I've got.
Speaker 3: That, So how can how can the listeners both follow
Speaker 3: and find you. But is there anything else that you'd
Speaker 3: like to support or as any way we can we
Speaker 3: can help you.
Speaker 1: Ah well, you can follow and support on Instagram or
Speaker 1: of a Facebook page. Just Katie Parker or Caitlin Parker
Speaker 1: on Facebook is my birth name now I go by either,
Speaker 1: but uh yeah, I mean yeah, if you follow the
Speaker 1: journey on that, I'll always post up different things that
Speaker 1: I'm doing and and whatnot. I don't know. Yeah, support,
Speaker 1: I just guess, like just just I mean to worry about.
Speaker 1: I mean, I love the support, but just get yourself
Speaker 1: into getting the listeners, get active, just get out there
Speaker 1: and and then do something if you if you want
Speaker 1: to try a little boxing for fitness class, if you're
Speaker 1: not you're not into the fighting, do that, like just
Speaker 1: just you know, do it for yourselves as well. But
Speaker 1: if you ever want to, you know, come to a
Speaker 1: boxing session down in Mornington, Finincila Boxing.
Speaker 3: Gym with a champ bronze medalists with Australias.
Speaker 1: And the coach and my coach, Marcosamado. He was at
Speaker 1: the Olympics. He's Olympic coach.
Speaker 3: So just say it, just saying get down there, guys,
Speaker 3: get down there. Katie's also been doing a little bit
Speaker 3: of speaking. So if anyone most amazingly inspiring woman standing
Speaker 3: in their business or schools, reach out, Yes, thank.
Speaker 1: You, that's actually great. I probably should have said that myself,
Speaker 1: but yeah, I love the opportunity to go to two
Speaker 1: different places and share my journey and whatever messages you
Speaker 1: want you to share, but I have lots of them,
Speaker 1: I have lots of lessons.
Speaker 2: Better.
Speaker 1: No, yeah, you can reach out to me via Instagram, Facebook, whatever,
Speaker 1: shoot me a message. I'd love to love talking obviously.
Speaker 2: You're amazing mate. Thank you so much.
Speaker 3: Thanks everyone, Fortuny and go give r a follow, reach
Speaker 3: out and get sales in the boxing room quicks Mark.
Speaker 2: She said, it's now never.
Speaker 1: I got fighting in my blood. Gotta to bodcast, Gotta
Speaker 1: true little gust, Gotta tu modocust, got it tru