Reese Lynch is halfway to completing the full set of medals that he so desires.
And this week, he’s aiming to get one step closer.
Lynch already has world championship and Commonwealth Games silverware in his locker.
If he can do what he’s promising this week and get on the podium at the European Games, that’ll be a European medal ticked off, leaving only the big one: Olympic silverware to complete the full house.
It’s no small ambition, but one
that Lynch believes he’s fully
capable of.
“A European medal is definitely something I want,” he says.
“Every time I’ve been to the
Europeans so far in my career I’ve lost out, and usually in the quarter-finals, so I’m definitely looking for my first European medal this week.
“Once I tick that off, all I need is an Olympic medal and that’ll be me having completed amateur boxing.
“I always feel confident and I know I’m capable of winning medals at the highest level so I believe it’s possible.”
Lynch though, is not at the European Games, where the boxing competition begins today, merely to win any medal, he’s there for one colour and one colour only and that’s gold.
In winning World Amateur Championship bronze in 2021 – the first Scot ever to achieve such a feat – and then adding Commonwealth gold to his collection last summer, the lightweight is no stranger to performing on the highest stage.
With Olympic qualification places also on the line in Krakow – if he reaches the semi-finals, he’ll secure a place at Paris 2024 - Lynch has no shortage of motivation to perform well over the coming days.
And so while he’s well aware of the considerable pressure upon his shoulders at these European Games in Krakow, he’s also not shying away from the fact that he’ll only be satisfied if he ends the week with a gold medal around his neck.
“I’m here for one thing; a gold medal. I know I’m at that level and I know I can do it. I won’t be happy with anything other than gold. You can be a champion or you can be a runner-up and I know which one I want to be,” the 21-year-old from Fauldhouse says.
“I know I’ve put my name out there so I do feel a bit of pressure but you’ve got to be able to deal with that and still perform. After getting a World medal, I know people have had high expectations of me but if I go out there and enjoy it, the results will take care of themselves.
“I feel like I deal with the expectation pretty well, anyway - I know I’m capable of beating anyone so I don’t mind the pressure.”
The political situation in amateur boxing has, over the past few years, been as messy as almost any sport has been forced to endure.
The discontent, which involves dissatisfaction from many nations about how the sport is run, resulted in several teams boycotting last month’s World Championships.
GB was one of those teams which refused to send fighters meaning Lynch was denied the opportunity to upgrade the bronze he won at the previous World Championships two years ago.
However, progress appears to, slowly but surely, be happening, with the revelation earlier this month that GB will, amongst others, join a breakaway governing body.
Lynch admits that while he does everything he can to stay out of the political discourse within his sport, the suggestion in recent months that GB could have been one of several countries who were refused the right to compete at the Paris Olympics next summer was causing him some concern.
However, GB’s boxers have now, qualification permitting, been guaranteed inclusion at Paris 2024 and so Lynch can relax in the knowledge that over the next year, he only needs to worry about what he does in the ring.
“It was gutting not being at the Worlds but it was good to watch it – there’s a few very good guys at my weight so it was interesting to see who’ll be at the Olympic qualifiers and then the Olympics themselves,” he says.
“There was part of me sitting watching thinking god sake, I could beat these guys. “But GB Boxing and UK Sport made that decision not to go and it’ll be better for us in the long-run.
“Whatever is best for the sport
is good with me. I don’t think about
it too much – I’m just here to box and I let other people sort out the politics.
“I do feel like things are getting better though. In GB, we now know we’re in the Olympics for sure, which is a relief because there had been a possibility that we wouldn’t be involved in Paris.
“But now that’s sorted, I can just concentrate on what I do in the ring.”
