Two-time Olympic gold medallist Kellie Harrington admitted on a podcast that she nearly gave up her spot for the Paris Games before they began last summer.
Harrington entered the Games as one of Ireland's top medal hopefuls, having won gold in Tokyo in 2020.
The Portland Row native, fighting once again in the lightweight division, fulfilled expectations and retained her medal against Yang Wenlu from China in a 4:1 split decision.
However, the Dublin native revealed she almost didn’t attend the Games due to personal challenges. She considered offering her spot to another Irish boxer rather than relinquishing it back to the IOC.
"I've got a family; I've got a wife; I've got dogs; I've got a mortgage. You have a personal life, and things happened over the last three years that were hard—especially from December 2023 onwards. We lost Mandy's father in December, and then we lost the dog in January," Harrington shared on Ryan Tubridy's The Bookshelf podcast.
“At that stage, I thought if I could give this spot up to another Irish girl, she could have it. I wouldn’t give it back to the IOC and give another country the spot, but I would give it to another Irish person if that could happen."
Harrington's victory has now gone down in history, and she added on Tubridy's podcast that she was grateful the IOC didn’t allow her to give up her spot.
"I asked, and they told me it couldn't happen. But I think they might have just said that because they really wanted me to go, and I'm glad they did. But that's where I was at.
"I was thinking of giving it up. I was thinking there’s so much more to life than boxing. I need to live life because at that stage, everything was happening."
The full podcast can be heard here.
See More: Boxing, Kellie Harrington
