{"id":186757,"date":"2025-10-03T05:08:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T05:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/186757\/"},"modified":"2025-10-03T05:08:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T05:08:10","slug":"fitness-racing-and-music-to-my-ears-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/186757\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Fitness, racing and music to my ears\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is no wintry trip back to Roscommon<\/a> on Friday night for Ireland\u2019s recently minted boxing<\/a> world champion Aoife O\u2019Rourke<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Her 5-0 win over Turkey\u2019s Busra Isildar in Liverpool last month<\/a> brought a second gold medal back to the O\u2019Rourke household to neatly complete a family circle. Her sister Lisa, who is five years younger, was the 2022 world champion. <\/p>\n

Although siblings have fought at major events before for Ireland \u2212 Aidan and Michaela Walsh competed in the Tokyo Olympics \u2212 sisters becoming boxing world champions is unparalleled.<\/p>\n

But Aoife, also a three-time European champion, is shunning the farming comforts of Castlerea and jumping on a plane to Germany to compete in Hyrox<\/a> Hamburg, a global fitness competition which she won earlier this year with Lisa, the pair becoming the World Hyrox doubles champions.<\/p>\n

Hyrox is a portmanteau combining the words: hybrid and rockstar. It is Ireland\u2019s Fittest Family event at DEFCON 1 levels, where they run, push and pull sleds and lunge with sandbags.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re always striving for more aren\u2019t you,\u201d she says. \u201cWe\u2019re never happy and competitive by nature. Having won the European Championship, the World Championship was always the next step. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was always something I was striving for, especially seeing Lisa did it back in 2022. It was definitely a goal for me.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Hyrox, yeah I love training. It\u2019s fitness, racing and it\u2019s music to my ears. It\u2019s a step away from boxing. I\u2019ve done it individually, but I\u2019ve also done it in doubles with Lisa.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know anything about it until one of the boxing coaches said, \u2018It\u2019s something I think you would like\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Aoife O\u2019Rourke wins gold at World Boxing ChampionshipsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\"AoifeAoife O’Rourke celebrates her win against Busra Isildar from Turkey during the World Boxing Championships final in Liverpool. Photograph: Ben Roberts Photo\/ Getty Images <\/p>\n

The months after World Championships are always decompressing times, with O\u2019Rourke\u2019s world title somewhat softening the hurt of not making the medal bouts at the Paris Olympic Games last year.<\/p>\n

Losing in a split decision to Poland\u2019s Elzbieta Wojick, who she had beaten six times before, stunned the Irish team and sent O\u2019Rourke back to reset.<\/p>\n

She met the disappointment with a stoic resolution to go back and make the little things better, stay in the minute, the second and never, ever lose the moment in competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust after Paris it was kind of an eye opener,\u201d she says. \u201cDon\u2019t think long-term. Remain present. I definitely had goals of getting on better at the Olympics but that didn\u2019t happen. It brings you back to enjoying the progress, enjoying the journey that I\u2019m on and not getting too far ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt comes down to the small consistent habits that athletes build on a day-to-day basis. This is coming from years of building a foundation, bases. Technically you are also trying to improve.\u201d<\/p>\n

She says she learned \u201chow to deal with the pressure and to remember you are doing it for you\u201d from it.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Irish boxers return from World Championships with medals in towOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cIt shouldn\u2019t be about pleasing anyone else. If I\u2019m not happy on the journey there is no point in doing it. It\u2019s about finding your happiness.\u201d<\/p>\n

The journey to LA 2028 may just provide that. The seismic shifts on boxing over recent years has also changed the weight categories at the Olympic Games. In previous Olympics the option was for one sister to drop to 66kg (10.3st), too much to shed for tall boxers, who are a much more comfortable fit at 70kg and more.<\/p>\n

Now with LA providing 70kg and 75kg divisions, it means both can have a shot at converting world medals into Olympic medals. <\/p>\n

That at least is the deliciously tempting possibility, one she understands is fraught with pitfalls.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf that does happen, that the two of us are representing Ireland for boxing in LA, it would be an incredible story,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo go to an Olympics with a sibling would be amazing, really, truly special. We have already achieved the Hyrox success, also for the boxing getting the silver medals and both being world champions … you are always striving to be the best.<\/p>\n

\"AoifeAoife and Lisa O’Rourke with the silver medals they won in their respective Elite Women 70-75kg middleweight and 66-70kg light middleweight final bouts at the 2025 Women’s World Boxing Championships finals. Photograph: Ray McManus\/ Sportsfile <\/p>\n

\u201cYes, I have achieved a world champion medal there but there\u2019s no doubt I\u2019ll have setbacks between now and LA. It\u2019s about taking things in small pieces and breaking them down, not getting ahead of yourself.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf somebody said to us this is your journey for the next three years, we\u2019d grab it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The material is there. Lisa is a twice under-22 European champion, a world silver medallist and world champion. Aoife has won the European title three times and is also a world silver medallist and world champion.<\/p>\n

Come LA 2028, Aoife will be 31 and Lisa 26. Team mate Kellie Harrington<\/a> successfully defended the lightweight gold medal she won in Tokyo in Paris 2024 at 34, while Katie Taylor was 39 for the defence of her professional world titles against Amanda Serrano in July. <\/p>\n

Age has become what people make it to be.<\/p>\n

\u201cKellie deserves everything she got, and she worked for it,\u201d she says. \u201cI truly believe you will not get anything without the hard work. <\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing how Kellie can achieve that, there\u2019s no doubt myself and others on the boxing team can\u2019t achieve the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now. Ticket to Hamburg, check. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There is no wintry trip back to Roscommon on Friday night for Ireland\u2019s recently minted boxing world champion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":186758,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[119066,64,63,802,85,63432],"class_list":{"0":"post-186757","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-aoife-o-rourke","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-boxing","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-world-boxing-championships"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}