{"id":277037,"date":"2025-11-11T06:14:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T06:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/277037\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T06:14:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T06:14:11","slug":"i-didnt-enjoy-it-thats-hard-to-say-but-ill-be-open-and-honest-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/277037\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I didn\u2019t enjoy it, that\u2019s hard to say, but I\u2019ll be open and honest\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

At one point during his startling admission of relief and solace in announcing his retirement, Aidan Walsh<\/a> is asked if he ever enjoyed his boxing<\/a> career and the Olympic and Commonwealth Games medals that came with it.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, no, I didn\u2019t,\u201d says Walsh. \u201cLooking back on my career, I neglected education, I neglected friendships, neglected a lot of things in life due to getting those medals. I didn\u2019t enjoy it, that\u2019s hard to say, but I\u2019ll be open and honest.\u201d<\/p>\n

At 28, Walsh is still in his boxing prime. Still, this decision has been coming for an age. He\u2019d already returned from a length lay-off to qualify for his second Olympics in Paris last year and the mental and physical scars run deep. He\u2019s nothing more to give.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish I\u2019d have done it a number of years ago, so I always knew it was coming. It hasn\u2019t been a difficult one at all. Even looking back on Paris, the emotional pain, the stress, the pressure, the anxiety. I was going through all that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s public knowledge I\u2019ve struggled over the last while, found the sport quite difficult. I\u2019m just happy that it\u2019s over now, on to the next stage of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Walsh is an increasingly familiar tale of the conflicting pressures and anxieties that often make up the elite athlete, he is also thankful for a lot. From humble beginnings with the St Agnes Club in Andersonstown in west Belfast, he followed his older sister Michaela to the famed Holy Family Club, promptly blossoming on the international scene.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Johnny Watterson: Aidan Walsh knows that in dreamland, athletes must mind how they goOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

He won a Commonwealth Youth Games medal in 2015, then at the delayed Tokyo Olympics in 2021, won the welterweight bronze medal \u2013 a somewhat bittersweet experience as he was unable to contest his semi-final bout due to an ankle injury sustained when celebrating his quarter-final win.<\/p>\n

\"ParisParis 2024 Olympic Games: Ireland\u2019s Aidan Walsh with Makan Traore of France. Photograph: Ryan Byrne\/Inpho <\/p>\n

His sister joined him in Tokyo and again in Paris in 2004, their careers aligning when they both won gold medals at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. <\/p>\n

Walsh last fought in a club tournament in the US this time last year, and despite the prospect of making a third Olympics there will be no regrets. Nothing Michaela said was going to change his mind either.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone knows elite sport is hard, it comes with high-performance, but pressure can do funny things, and I was just under so much pressure. Before every tournament, Michaela will tell you, people close to me will tell you, I kept saying \u2018this is the last one\u2019. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was still performing okay, but mentally and psychologically, I knew it was time to sign out, enjoy life. Michaela didn\u2019t even want me coming back for Paris. She had to pick me off the floor a number of times before competitions, walk me off the gyms with towels over my head to make sure no one sees me breaking down. I\u2019m just glad I\u2019ve put it to bed for her as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I wish I could give my medal to Michaela, she deserves that Olympic medal far more. I\u2019ve been lucky, I genuinely mean that. Whether it be good draws, good decisions, but if anyone deserves a medal, it\u2019s Michaela. But as I say, you\u2019re better to be born lucky than born rich.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walsh lost his opening bout in Paris, and despite retaining \u20ac18,000 in Sport Ireland funding for this year, he\u2019d no desire to get between the ropes. He\u2019s doing an MA in sports psychology, hoping to pursue a PhD around the pressures placed on young boxers within the high-performance environment.<\/p>\n

\"ParisParis 2024 Olympic Games:
\nIreland\u2019s Aidan Walsh makes his way to the athlete exit. Photograph: Ryan Byrne\/Inpho <\/p>\n

He\u2019s also grateful all the support he got from Dr Paul Gaffney, high-performance psychologist at Sport Ireland, and the Olympic Federation of Ireland (OFI).<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pressures that athletes are under, it\u2019s just so, so hard. And without the support I wouldn\u2019t have been able to do it. There\u2019s nothing more daunting or terrifying to know you have to walk a path alone, and my goal is to help athletes to make sure there\u2019s someone in that environment to help them, walk along with them. And just feel physically safe, and a sense of belonging. It\u2019s so, so crucial.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been helped by some amazing people, Dr Paul Gaffney in particular, within Sport Ireland. I\u2019m in a position now I want to help the next level of Irish boxers coming through, contribute it that way, help it remain the most successful Olympic sport in Ireland. <\/p>\n

\u201cBoxing for me was something everyone done, I just jumped into it, happened to be okay at it. My sister happened to be very, very good at it. But whenever you start winning those medals, there\u2019s a lot of stress and anxiety and burn out that comes with it. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve so many injuries from sport, both physical and psychological, I have to live with for the next two-thirds of my life. You don\u2019t see that when you\u2019re in sport. You\u2019re so driven by medals and performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite his own dark experiences, Walsh is no less a fan of the sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes I think across all high-performance sports we can get so bogged down on this need to achieve medals, but in the process, how can you help athletes feel safe and secure, open to sharing their struggles? Because I think a lot of athletes are struggling, afraid to open up.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a passion for me, at a young age, and I\u2019ve also learned boxing can be used as a vehicle for change, that\u2019s something I want to emphasise. All my role models from a young age were Olympic medallists, but regardless of medals or achievement, it\u2019s the relationships I\u2019ve made that mean the most.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At one point during his startling admission of relief and solace in announcing his retirement, Aidan Walsh is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[160658,64,63,802,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-277037","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-aidan-walsh","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-boxing","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277037","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=277037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}