Katie Taylor’s astounding win at the biggest fight in women’s boxing history has propelled her to sporting superstardom.
Perhaps the greatest sportsperson Ireland has ever produced, the 35-year-old has almost single-handedly carried women’s boxing for the guts of two decades.
But once upon a time, Katie was probably the only female boxer on these shores.
Read more: Katie Taylor says Madison Square Garden victory topped Olympic gold medal win
And the young Bray athlete, dreaming of getting her hands on an Olympic medal, found even getting a fight was an uphill battle.
In the late 1990s she would hide her long hair and go by the name Kay Taylor – causing pandemonium at contests when opponents found out she was a girl.
She recalled: “I think I was the only female boxer in the country at a time so I used to have to pretend I was a boy to get into these competitions.
“I used to have my hair up in my headgear and I used to be known as Kay Taylor. When I took the headgear off at the end of the fight and they realised I was a girl, there was uproar.
“The minute I started boxing, it just really took hold of my heart.”
The gym she used to train in didn’t even have a toilet or shower.
In fact, the then Taoiseach Enda Kenny was left red-faced when he visited Bray boxing club in 2012 and learned Katie had to dash off to the nearby Harbour Bar if she wanted to use the loo.
But the bad publicity worked and a couple of years later Katie cut the ribbon on a revamped gym following its €300,000 transformation from “tin shed” into state-of-the-art facility that helped her on the road to stardom.
In the years since, she has become one of Ireland’s most successful athletes and an inspirational role model for women’s boxing.
Born in Bray, Co Wicklow, in July of 1986, Katie grew up with three older siblings – one sister and two brothers – her mum Bridget and dad Pete.
Her early years were spent at St Kilian’s Community School in Bray, after which she went on to study at UCD.
From a young age she had a keen interest in sport, taking part in soccer as well as playing Gaelic and Camogie with her local GAA clubs.
Katie first began boxing when she was 11 and competed in several competitions across Ireland and Europe with her father as her coach.
She is still very close to her family and usually has mum Bridget and sister Sarah alongside her at fights.
However, she now spends a lot of time training in the US.
Early in her career Katie and her dad enjoyed incredible success together in amateur boxing, culminating in her taking an Olympic gold medal in 2012.
But the pair went their separate ways in 2016 after the breakdown of Pete and Bridget’s marriage.
Later that year, Katie crashed out at the quarter-final stage of the Olympic Games in Rio, suffering a defeat to Finland’s Mira Potkonen.
Speaking to Ryan Tubridy on The Late Late Show last year, she explained how 2016 had been a torrid period.
She said: “I would describe that whole year as turmoil. There was a lot of turmoil within our family relationships and it is no secret at this stage that myself and my dad parted ways throughout that year and my whole training regime was turned upside down.
“I was going from club to club just trying to get spars here and there. I was sleeping in the car in between sessions and I wasn’t eating properly. When things don’t pan out the way you hoped and dreamed, you can’t underestimate how heartbreaking that is.
“As an athlete with my mentality, winning is everything and that was easily the lowest point of my career.”
Even from an early age it was evident Katie had the makings of a world boxing hero.
In 2005, when she was just 19, she became the first Irish woman to win a gold medal at the Senior European Championships after competing against Eva Wahlstrom, Lucie Bertaud and Gulsum Tatar.
During her amateur boxing career she won five consecutive gold medals at the Women’s World Championships and gold six times at the European Championships, as well as winning five times at the European Union Championships.
She qualified for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, marking the first year in which female boxers could compete at the games.
She reached the finals against Russian boxer Sofya Ochigava and won her Olympic gold medal – becoming the first ever Olympic female lightweight champion.
Katie moved into the professional ranks in 2016. She is now the undisputed lightweight champion of the world and is set to become one of boxing’s richest women.
Read more: Kellie Harrington congratulates "warrior" Katie Taylor on "absolutely incredible" win
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