Kellie Harrington says she’s “quietly confident” ahead of the Paris Olympics, where she’ll aim to repeat the success she enjoyed in Tokyo four years ago, when she won a gold medal in boxing.
She appeared on the Late Late Show tonight along with fellow Olympic hopefuls, Daniel Wiffen and Rhys McClenaghan, who are also aiming for glory in Paris this summer.
Harrington will be one of the leading lights for Ireland at the Games and is confident that she can deliver, but told host Patrick Kielty that she doesn’t enjoy the added pressure of people’s expectations.
“There are a lot of expectations on us,” she said. “When you do well, people automatically expect, you know, there are people already saying ‘Another gold!’
“The taxi man asked me what’s the odds in the bookies for me winning gold [in Paris]. I mean, that was just on the way in here, you know?
“For me, I hate hearing that because that’s pressure,” added the boxer. “And I don’t need that pressure, you know?”
Despite bearing the weight of the nation’s expectations on her shoulders, Harrington told Kielty that she’s “quietly confident” ahead of this summer’s Olympic Games.
“I like being confident,” she explained. “I am confident, but I’m quietly confident.
“I don’t have to go around saying ‘I’m this’ and ‘I’m that’, like, I have confidence but I keep myself nice and calm and controlled, and I just let it be what it will be,” added Harrington.
The 34-year-old has already said that the Games in Paris will be her last, and she’s hoping to go out in a blaze of Olympic glory by defending her lightweight title.
Success this summer would make her the first Irish athlete to successfully defend an Olympic title since hammer thrower Pat O’Callaghan in 1928 and 1932.
It’s a feat that Katie Taylor had hoped to achieve in Rio 2016 after claiming gold at London 2012, but ultimately fell short.
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