When Aidan Walsh flew out to Tokyo a year after he should have he wasn't considered a favourite for a medal. Instead he proved many of his doubters wrong and ended up standing proudly on the pdium with a bronze medal in the bag.
Walsh etched himself into Irish sporting folklore when he won his medal in the quarter-finals of the mens Welterweight boxing event at the Covid-19 delayed Tokyo Olympics.
Now, as part of an Olympic Federation of Ireland mini-series, he's decided to reveal his inner emotions as the biggest moment of his life so far began to unfold.
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Aidan Walsh started 2021 ranked third in Ireland, with only one athlete in each category to be selected for the crucial Olympic qualification tournament in Paris in June 2021. It was here that he achieved a lifelong ambition, he qualified for the Tokyo Olympic Games and with it, the chance to win a medal.
Less than two months later Walsh entered the ring with just one fight between himself and a place in Irish sporting history.
"Being there was surreal, when you look down you can see the Olympic rings on the canvas. For me, there I am, in the Olympic ring. All the people that I had always watched, always looked up to, always admired, there I was standing there. I knew I had to be smart.
"I knew that I just stick to the game plan, stick to what the coaches were telling me, and I can’t go wrong, I’ll be an Olympic medallist.”
As Walsh progressed through the fight he could see his opponent faltering. His Mauritian opponent eventually succumbed to a 4-1 defeat and Walsh had written himself into the history books. Describing the final moments of the bout and the wait for the verdict Walsh said,
"The split second when there’s complete silence. The whole arena is waiting to announce who has won. It was like my whole life flashed before my eyes! Those ten seconds were like the longest ten seconds of my life."
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