Irish amateur boxer and Olympian, Kellie Harrington is gearing up for the fight of her career on Sunday, as she takes on Brazil's Beatriz Ferreira in the Olympic lightweight final.
The Dubliner defeated Thailand's Sudaporn Seesondee in the semi-final on Thursday morning and is now aiming for gold at 6 am on Sunday live on RTE Two.
Over the years, Harrington has clocked up a number of great achievements since entering the ring at 16 when she joined Corinthians Boxing Club.
Growing up
The 31-year-old grew up on Portland Row in Dublin’s inner city, and in past interviews revealed the ease at which the people around her were being lured into a life of mischief and crime.
She told the Irish Times back in 2019, that although she had begun on a path of destruction after leaving school in her second year, she pulled herself out of it and has worked incredibly hard to get to where she is today.
At the age of 18, Kellie went into the army and dreamed of being a soldier, but decided to leave after four months to pursue other things - including Sports Leisure management.
The Irish star trained day-in-day-out and spent her weekends serving meals to the elderly in Fairview.
More recently the boxer said she plans to continue working a frontline job at St. Vincent's Psychiatric Hospital when she returns from the Games.
Career
The beginning of Harrington’s streak of success came in 2016 when she secured her first major medal for Ireland - taking silver at the World Championships in Astana.
She continued to impress then in 2017 and came home with silver from the EU Championships followed by bronze at the Europeans in 2018 before she became world champion that year in New Delhi.
Her career was on fire, but a wrist injury sustained in 2019 put things on hold for and she had to withdraw from the European final against Finland's Mira Potkonen.
Harrington wasn't able to return to the ring until January 2020, but then Covid-19 further disrupted the boxing calendar across the globe, and so didn't fight again until February 2021.
Olympics
Then began her road to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, when she was chosen to represent Ireland back in June.
She was then picked as the flag-bearer for Team Ireland at the opening ceremony, and said; “It’s an amazing honour, there are so many athletes out here, and to be chosen as one of the flag-bearers is absolutely fantastic. I can’t believe it really.”
She went on to secure Ireland's fourth medal of the Games after unanimously beating Algeria's Imane Khelif to secure bronze.
Then she beat Thai boxer, Sudaporn Seesondee - a win that led the way to her gold medal fight on Sunday morning, August 8, against Beatriz Ferreira.
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