{"id":501773,"date":"2026-02-26T22:57:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T22:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/501773\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T22:57:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T22:57:09","slug":"zaur-antia-to-reunite-with-billy-walsh-taking-role-with-usa-boxing-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/501773\/","title":{"rendered":"Zaur Antia to reunite with Billy Walsh, taking role with USA Boxing \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Ireland high-performance boxing head coach Zaur Antia is to reunite with Billy Walsh in Colorado as they attempt to revitalise the US Olympic programme ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Games.<\/p>\n

Antia (62) stepped down as head of coaching with the Irish Athletic Boxing Association (IABA) in mid-November, bringing to an end a tenure of more than two decades during which Irish boxers secured 10 Olympic<\/a> medals and multiple world titles.<\/p>\n

Under his guidance, Irish athletes won 154 elite medals across four Olympic cycles. His departure came as a surprise given the LA Games are now less than two years away.<\/p>\n

His final major championship in charge saw Ireland claim three medals at the World Boxing Championships in Liverpool last September, with Aoife O\u2019Rourke taking gold while Gr\u00e1inne Walsh and Patsy Joyce also reached the podium.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Zaur Antia leaves Irish boxing with his legacy secureOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The IABA subsequently offered Antia a consultancy role, and he indicated he would decide on his future early in the new year. His attendance at the National Elite Championships finals last month, where he sat alongside former colleagues, had suggested he might remain involved in some capacity.<\/p>\n

However, it has now emerged that Antia will instead link up again with Billy Walsh, the Wexford native with whom he forged one of the most successful coaching partnerships in Irish sport.<\/p>\n

Antia joined the Irish set-up as a technical coach shortly after Walsh\u2019s appointment as IABA head coach in late 2002.<\/p>\n

\"ZaurZaur Antia at the National Indoor Arena in Abbotstown in 2024. Photograph: Morgan Treacy\/INpho <\/p>\n

At that stage, he did not speak English and relied largely on demonstration, body language and technical expertise, supported by Walsh and then high-performance director Gary Keegan.<\/p>\n

The two coaches worked side by side for more than a decade, a period that coincided with Ireland\u2019s emergence as a consistent force at Olympic and World level.<\/p>\n

When Walsh departed to take charge of USA Boxing in 2015, Antia succeeded him as head coach in the Irish set-up, with the latter delivering an emotional tribute to his friend.<\/p>\n

\u201cThirteen years is not 13 days,\u201d said Antia. \u201cIn high-performance sport, 13 years can be many lifetimes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThirteen years we worked together in this work and this time we have created history and created friendship. We achieved so much together. We worked so closely together and worked very hard with huge charisma, Spirit and heart and this created a very special team spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pair remained close, with Walsh providing support during the doping controversy that overshadowed Irish boxing at the Rio Games in 2016.<\/p>\n

Walsh has spoken of Antia\u2019s influence on Ireland\u2019s success, describing him as a \u201cphenomenal addition\u201d whose technical approach helped establish a system regarded as among the best in the world.<\/p>\n

Walsh has indicated that the current Olympic cycle will be his final one in charge of the American programme before returning back to Ireland. He guided the US to three medals in Rio, four in Tokyo and one bronze in Paris.<\/p>\n

With Antia now set to join him Stateside, the pair will seek to strengthen the American challenge and add one final chapter to a long and productive partnership.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Ireland high-performance boxing head coach Zaur Antia is to reunite with Billy Walsh in Colorado as they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":501774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,7573,82],"class_list":["post-501773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-feature","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}