Blood, Sweat, and Olympic Glory | Caitlin Parker - 914 - Roll With The Punches

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
She said, it's now never I got fighting in my blood.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
I'm tiff.

Speaker 3 (00:10):
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Speaker 2 (00:51):
Katie Parker, welcome to roll with the punches. If anyone
deserves to be here, bloody hell, it's you.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
Thank you, thank you, love love to be here, love,
Oh my god, what a great start by me. It's
great to be here. We'll just say that that's.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
You just mirroring my setup.

Speaker 3 (01:11):
I've just told you how I make up words and
screw things up, and that's just you do it, being
a good guest and just fitting right in off forget go.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
I had to yah set the expectations high from the start.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
Really, what can we say? We both get punched in
the head a lot, so.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
Expect all the time. And I'm like, I really shouldn't
say that, Like it doesn't sound good, But it's just
a way to get out of things, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
I love saying it.

Speaker 3 (01:37):
I think I just love the shock bealley of just
going to get punched it a lot. And I love
it more if people don't realize what I'm talking about.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
Ah, you don't give the context of you're a box
or anything. They're like, You're okay, how's your home situation.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
What's it like? What's it like these days? Being in
a limpian.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
Same old Really, see the fact that I get a
little l y underpass my name that I can chuck
on the Instagram and whatnot, so you know, just could
have got to use the perks while when I have them,
you know, so, but it's the same old really. I
just I have a nice, tiny little medal that I
got to bring home that I could just show off

(02:18):
now and then.

Speaker 3 (02:20):
Is it weird being a medal winning olympian for our
country yet in a sport where so many people are
probably only just beginning to watch, like Boxing's growing, and
it's growing for women and it's awesome, but it feels

(02:42):
like a sport that's really young in terms of people
knowing who's representing the country and that we're even here.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
Yeah yeah, I mean, like, obviously it's one of the
oldest Olympic sports, but women were only allowed to fight
in the Olympics in twenty two twelve, which is nuts.
I think that was the first time that was equal representation,
not in numbers, but just like males and females in
every sport at the Olympics. Like crazy that it's taken

(03:11):
this long. Ah, But yeah, like I guess, you know,
even from an early age, you know, as a young
girl in a male dominated sport, I always wanted to
prove that I belonged, and you know, being one of
the only girls in the gym, just that was just
a constant, uphill battle guys not wanting to spa or
work with me, and you know, just having to go, well,
you're gonna get in the ring with me, and if
you're not gonna punch me back, I'm just gonna punch

(03:32):
You're gonna punch me back eventually. So going in with
that kind of mindset, I was just like I just
want to prove that, like I can be better than you.
You know, it doesn't matter male or female, Like I'm
gonna work harder than you. I'm gonna, you know, put
everything that I have into this. And I've loved seeing
the sport grow in that amount of time. At my gym.
Now I think more than half of the fighters actually female,

(03:56):
and yeah, how good is that? And then we have
these like development days the girls get together and it's
just like I look around, I'm like, this is crazy,
what the hell? Like this is so awesome. I was
even invited to the AIS to the Australian introduced sport
to do, you know, just talk to the females. I
had a female camp there, more like the girls that

(04:16):
have had maybe under ten or eleven, ten or fifteen
fights or something like that. And I went there and
I'm looking around. There's like forty of these girls that
have gone to this camp alone, and I'm like, make
sure that you get each other's numbers and contacts and
work together, even if you just do a little weekend together,
travel to each other and just you know, it's so
great to be able to uplift each other. But and

(04:37):
then again to make the headlines and be you know,
make the history of being the first female to meddle
for Australia in boxing at the Olympics was insane. That's
that's a massive goal of mine. But also to see
the impact that it has had on others and to
see that in the in the headlines going you know,
boxer female and so many people got around me. It's just,

(05:01):
I don't know, it's incredible.

Speaker 3 (05:04):
It just even just as you said that, and I
like when you reflect on that and go, that lives
in history forever now, like no one can. People can
come along and do it again, but no one can
do it for the first time again. Your name will
always be etched in history as the first medal winning
female for Australia.

Speaker 2 (05:25):
Yeah, yeah, pretty, we hear that, to be honest, so amazing.

Speaker 1 (05:30):
I mean, getting a medal at the Olympics is hard work.
I think in the history of Australia boxing in the Olympics,
which goes back to I don't know back in time.
I got to get the stats, but I think I'm
about the seventh maybe the eighth medalist all up, so
we really doesn't happen very often, and we had Harry

(05:51):
guy side, really really good friend of mine, like Zilli's
like a brother to me. He won that first medal
back after thirty three years we hadn't won a medal,
so he won that in in Tokyo, and to be
there to cheer him on after things didn't go my way,
it was just amazing to be able to just soak
in that and just made history, Like how good is that?

(06:12):
And then you know, it made me work even harder, pushed,
pushed and put everything I had into this and and
myself and one of the other boys again like a
little brother to me that you know, we've we've traveled
and trained together for years and years and we both
of us together won a medal and to be able
to celebrate that again, it was just amazing and it

(06:33):
was me I got to do it.

Speaker 2 (06:34):
It's so amazing, is it? Because how many fights have
you had? Now?

Speaker 1 (06:41):
I've had one hundred and twenty seven five.

Speaker 3 (06:44):
So that's a lot of time stepping into the ring. Yeah,
but in terms of stepping into the ring for the
Olympics that only comes around every four years? Does that
what does that do to you? What does it do
to your mindset, your form? Wants your expectation of yourself
and anything else that you experienced that no one else

(07:05):
knows about. A probably nothing until the next one, and
then you're gonna be like, oh, I remember that question
you asked, Shit, this is a big deal.

Speaker 1 (07:18):
Yeah, Like basically, all I can say is that, like,
this has been a goal of mine since I can remember.
I was you know, when I started the sport and
found out that women's boxing was in the Olympics. Like
that's when it started for me. And it has been
such a long journey to get here, and it's taken

(07:40):
so many you know falls to come back and you know,
not getting that goal straight away. Is this big goal
I said of mine from an early age, to go
through the pits and falls of it, to keep pushing
through this long seventeen years I've been boxing, So I
started when I was eleven years old, and now a
lot of people have just been started following me, you

(08:02):
know lately, you know, coming into coming into Paris, and
it might just seem like, oh, wow, you know you
did amazing whatever, But I'm like that, can you understand
how long how much work it actually took me? But
thank you, I really appreciate it, and then it was
like straight away as soon as I got home, when's
the next one? What are you doing now? I'm like,
give me a little, give me a breath this, I
want to take this moment. And I never I've never

(08:23):
taken a taken an achievement in I don't think I've
just kind of moved on to the next one. This one,
I've really given myself the chance to just reflect on
the whole journey and just take it in like this
is I did it.

Speaker 2 (08:37):
I love that.

Speaker 3 (08:38):
Now I've heard I've heard a lot more of your story,
But can you talk about how you started in because
I really loved listening when we when we first met,
and I heard about when you started boxing and how
and just the journey, Like, what's it? Can you just
tell us tell us a story storytime with Katie.

Speaker 1 (08:56):
Yeah, let's take us back to I don't even know
what year, when I was eleven years old. No, so
I actually got into combat sports my dad big yeah,
Daddy's girl. And you know, he always wanted me to
look after myself, and he got me into taekwondo to
start with, and he said I wasn't allowed to walk

(09:16):
to school by myself. Until I got a black belt
in taekwondo. So I worked hard because I really wanted
to walk to side. I don't know why I wanted
to walk to school so badly, but I was really hard.
And then as soon as I could, I got a
black belt and that's what I was competing and things
like that, and you know, I love that obviously. That
was my first kind of setting goals at a young age,
when I got that I don't want to walk to

(09:38):
school by was no's just taking me in the car
now independence He realized it's not that great, but U.
And then we got to black belt and actually my
first time in the ring, in the ring, what do
you call on the mat in taekwondo, it's been a
little while for me. I was actually because I I've
always been big for my age. I grew, I grew

(10:00):
from an early age, and I always looked older than
I was. So I was nine years old getting on
the on the mat, so weird to say, not in
the ring, but on the mat with fifteen year olds
and stuff like that. And then in boxing I wanted
to start that. It was just the next challenge. I
couldn't go to the next dan of the on the
on your belt until it was a couple of years

(10:21):
I had to wait, and I was like, I'm ready
for for a new challenge. It was very, very different
kind of environment I'd say, taekwondo and boxing. Well, even
the gyms I was at. So this gym for taekwondo,
it was very you know, strict, you couldn't talk to
anyone else. You had to you know, do all the things,
you bow with the right times and uh. And then

(10:41):
I went to the boxing gym and it's just funny.
The first time I walked into the gym. My coach's
name is Fox. He looks like a big Viking, muscled up,
tattooed head to toe and just we were like a
better word like bow, you know. I was just like, yeah,
you know, come on, and I was like, hey, this

(11:03):
is different already. Wow, let's go. And he partnered me
up with this boy to work with it for the
first day and he was like, you know, you're be
working with this guy. He's the Australian champion. And I
was like, oh my god, whoa, that's so cool, Like
I had to work with the Aussie champion, Like that's
what I want to be so that was really impactful

(11:24):
to start with. And yeah, I guess it just it
just kept me going. I loved that environment and I
was always very very shy, so you know, I was
very excited, but I'd still hide behind mum and dad
before i'd walk into the gym. But basically that's how
it started boxing.

Speaker 2 (11:41):
That's so brave.

Speaker 3 (11:42):
Like I remember walking into gyms even once i'd already
started fighting, and walking into new gyms just for fitness
based classes really and still feeling incredibly intimidating and thinking
you've trained under some pretty brutal coaches as you've fought,
and you still feel self conscious as a female walking

(12:04):
into some of these really friendly, really welcome in boxing gyms.

Speaker 2 (12:08):
Like imagine you ton little thing.

Speaker 1 (12:11):
I wasn't very tiny, but yeah, yeah for sure, like
I was, I was incredibly shy, like zero self confidence.
And yeah, I think that's also when my dad like
always wanted to give me. My parents sorry, my dad
put me, wanted me to go to the combat route.
But my parents were super supportive and and got me wanted.

(12:32):
They saw the value of sport. They weren't able to
do it much when they were younger. Although my mom
is not sporty in the slightest and not coordinated. She's
always I've tried to take her on the pads before
my mom just left right like. But so yeah, yeah,

(12:52):
my parents just saw the value in sport and giving
me some confidence. I needed that a lot, and you know,
discipline and resilience, and through that, I was able to
discover my own strength that came with challenging my limits
as well.

Speaker 2 (13:09):
I love that. When did you start competing in the boxing?

Speaker 1 (13:13):
So I didn't actually get to compete until I was thirteen.
So I because I was always trying to find fights,
but there was no one my age and way the
first so I was weighing in thirteen years old seventy kilos,
like there was no one my age and way, and
so I fight at seventy five kilos now, So I've
always been like this tall and this is big. But

(13:34):
I say, like I'm massive, I'm not, you know, at
that age it was yeah taller. I was always in
the back line of the school photos. I always wanted
to be in the front. I wanted to sit down
like the other girls, but I was standing at the back.
It's the small things. But yeah, I why do I
lose track of what I'm talking about.

Speaker 2 (13:55):
I go, I love it.

Speaker 3 (13:56):
It's like how Yeah, because even when I started around
that time, and it was starting to get a bit
more popular, but probably more so because my entry into
boxing was through the corporate Boxing Challenges, which is a
very friendly environment to be given an opportunity like that.

(14:19):
But at your age, at that time, there's no opportunities
to fight. So I'd love you to share how your
your parents got those opportunities for you and how you
developed that.

Speaker 1 (14:34):
Yes, and that reminds me of exactly yeah, what I
was just talking about as well. So yeah, So I
was continuously trying to find fights. I was telling my coach,
so please, I just want to I want to get
in the ring. I don't know what pushed me so hard,
but I just I wanted to challenge myself. I wanted
to get in the ring. Obviously all the training that
I'd done. I wanted to show that I was listening

(14:56):
and that it was all you know four or for
a purpose. I'm very gold dribbn. I need something to
kind of work towards. So getting in the ring was
a big thing for me. And so the first time
I got in the ring. It wasn't an official fight,
it was called an exhibition. But to get someone in
the ring with me, I had to get in the
ring with a twenty five year old at thirteen years old,

(15:17):
and I loved it. It was such a great experience.
Everyone was like, oh, you definitely won that. We were
both got our hands raised at the end. But I
took that. I was like, yeah, but that was yeah.
That was early on, and then I was able to
get a couple of like I think my first actual
official fight was a state title fighting yeah, this other girl. Yeah,

(15:43):
I was I had to kind of have the big
fights early on. I went to nationals. It was my
maybe my fifth or sixth five, and I ended up
stopping the girl in forty five seconds, just because I
was just so eager. And that's my first style. My
taught me Foxy. He just taught me to be tough

(16:03):
and I would just come forward and swing and yeah,
I guess they didn't know what to do with me,
and yeah, they ended up giving me the fight in
forty five seconds. I was like, well that's and so
from there, I was selected to go to the World
Championships in Turkey, and I was just about to turn fifteen.
I'm going to Turkey. I don't even think i'd heard

(16:23):
of the country before, and I could just travel across
the world. Yeah, insane. It didn't even at the time
Mum and Dad, you know, they couldn't They couldn't come,
They couldn't afford it. They put all their money and
everything they had into just getting me to training. And
I was meeting up with a teamide from Perth originally,
so I was flying across across the country to meet
up with some of the team I think it was
Sydney probably, and then fly back over that way to

(16:46):
Europe and to go to Turkey. Very very I think
I just loved being able to take that in and travel.
I never left Australia and New Zealand, and to be
able to go and experience such different culture than what
I was used to was just such a learning such
a learning experience. And yeah, it took a lot out

(17:08):
of it and I got to travel to some amazing
countries after that. I think you learn more doing that
stuff than anything else.

Speaker 3 (17:16):
One, how does the funding for that work? When you
get opportunities or go and seek opportunities overseas?

Speaker 2 (17:24):
Is their funding available yeah.

Speaker 1 (17:27):
I mean back then there wasn't a lot. I think
they might have helped us a little bit. But my
parents they're my biggest support network. Like they're just incredible.
The amount they've put in to be able to give
myself and my brother the opportunities that they have. I
can't thank them enough. I always bring them up because
they deserve it so much. And and if I asked

(17:47):
them to talk in an interview, they couldn't add all.
They're just shy, but so they My dad has worked
two jobs seven days a week for my whole life
to how to get me to training. Has worked multiple jobs,
She did some starts. She was secretary of boxing wa
to you know, be able to support and be a
part of it, get us you know that, I don't know,

(18:10):
get us into the fights basically not have to pay,
but that. And she would also sell pies and she
would clean houses and she would do whatever it took
to be able to raise funds because we didn't come
from much with a low socioeconomic area. You know, a
mum and dad probably I think they didn't even finish
year eight year ten of highs of school. So yeah,

(18:32):
they work extremely hard to be able to give us
these opportunities and so yeah, they again fundraise like crazy.
They get me to Turkey to the World Championships when
I just turned fifteen, and I'm glad they did, you know,
because I did win a bronze medal there that that
was a big one for me. I was like, you know,
I show them that their sacrifices were worth it. And really,

(18:55):
for me, my biggest motivation is obviously myself, but then yeah,
like and pushing myself and whatever, but that's that that
pushes me. That that's my why as well. I want
to show them that, you know, I can I can
do and prove to them that, you know, all the
work that they put in was worth.

Speaker 3 (19:12):
God, it's so amazing and it's so selfless and what
like what was their expectation of I guess where this
could take you? What were they hoping to give you?
What were they hoping for you to get out of it?
Like amateur? Like you're not making money amateur boxing?

Speaker 1 (19:34):
No? Yeah, no, definitely not So I get I think
it started because they wanted to. I think my dad
as well, from a young age, he always wanted to
be involved in sport. But you know, couldn't could didn't
have those opportunities to get out there and do that.
So I think he wanted to always do that for us.
I think the confidence and the discipline and resilience, I

(19:57):
think they always wanted to instill that in us, and
I think obvious see when I started winning and then
showed a bit of potential. I think he just wanted
me to be able to have the opportunities to get
the most out of it and to be able to
accomplish my dreams. And then I told my parents I
want to I want to go to the Olympics, and
remember being the local paper like I want to go
to the Olympics, And you know, they just wanted to

(20:21):
provide that for us and my brother. He he fought
a bit, but yeah, he chose another life path and
he wasn't really too interested in it. But for me, Yeah,
even to this day, it's so important to have a
great support network. I've got to own partner now, who's
just incredible and I've been with him for seven years

(20:43):
now and he's just been there. Like I can't thank
him enough because I can't do this alone. Like you said,
it doesn't pay the bills, and there is a struggle.
And to be able to sit there and go away
and travel for six months of the year most of
the time, and train lot, and for them to stick
stick by you, push you to be your best and

(21:04):
you know, not not pull you backwards in any way.
I'm really grateful.

Speaker 2 (21:09):
What is the sacrifice? Do you feel like you sacrifice
in order to live this life? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (21:16):
I think sacrifice is a difficult word. I hear people
saying a lot like, it's not sacrifice and you can
because it's worth it, you know that is it's I
don't know, people say a lot of things about the
word sacrifice. I think you have to in a way absolutely,
I you know. I guess something that comes to mind

(21:36):
straight away is, you know, missing out on a lot
of things at home. One big one was very quite recently.
My best friend asked me to be her maid of
honor and I missed that because I had to qualify
for the Olympics in the Solomon Islands. And I looked
and it was the day before the wedding, but there

(21:58):
was no there's a flight out every second day. I wasn't.
There was no way I was going to be able
to make it. And I was gutted to be able
to have to call her up on the phone. I
was just blubbering. I didn't think I made sense. I
was like, oh no, no, you know, I couldn't make
it like that's you know, because because those people. I
have a couple of beautiful, just solid friends that just

(22:20):
completely understand that I can't be there for most things.
But to say that to her, I was gutted. But
she was like, if you don't go, Like, if if
you don't go, buddy qualified with the Olympics, I would
be mad at you that I.

Speaker 2 (22:32):
Don't want to be your friend anymore if you're not
an Olympian.

Speaker 1 (22:36):
She probably said words, wasn't that you better freaking go?
But yeah, I had to make my speech and I'm
in the Solomon Islands and sweating. It's so hot and
humid there. I was sweating and in my in my
ausie uniform, just yeah, trying to give the most heartfelt
speech that I could. But things like that, right, you
miss out on those moments, I guess. And I had

(22:58):
to move away from family and friends. Yeah, a few
years ago now, six maybe six years ago, I had
to move away from them because I knew more opportunities
were here in Melbourne for me, and that was hard
because my family is like my biggest value in life.
I love being around them, my mum and dad, my brother,
my partner. My partner and I moved over. We're like

(23:20):
dating for six months and we moved over. I can't
believe that I don't even know you that well. I
don't know, but yeah, can we come over here to
so I could get more opportunity to box and for
him to work and whatnot, and so just things like
that that it missed out a lot of stuff and
I hated living away from them for this long. I've

(23:41):
just actually just finally convinced them to come and live
with me after that Log's It's been about five months
or something now, but finally I'm like, God, I'm here.
I'm happy. I've got all my loved ones around me.

Speaker 3 (23:54):
What's been the hardest in terms of the sport or
the training or the skills. What's challenged you the most?

Speaker 1 (24:03):
Ooh ah, what's the challenge with there? There's obviously there's
lots of challenges. I think one of my big challenge
would be just, you know, making sure you just always
show up and stay consistent. Because that's a that's a
tough one just from always kind of remembering your goal.
But I think I kind of go into the you

(24:25):
know how I was saying earlier that it's been such
a long journey, right and continuously showing up and putting
my all into that for this long. I think that's
totably been the biggest challenge for me. Because when I
found out that I, you know, women could box in
the Olympics, and I'd set myself a goal rio twenty sixteen,

(24:45):
I would just be old enough to compete there, and
I wanted that with everything I had, and before and
after school, I'd before school, we'd go run around the
block and do a certain amount of skips and push
ups and whatever, go to school, come home. At the time,
I was actually playing rugby and I was boxing. I
wasn't playing boxing. I was playing rugby and boxing. But

(25:09):
so I'd go from one training to the next because
I thought, actually initially that I was going to go
to the Olympics for both. I thought rugby and boxing,
I can do that. But then you realize how much
goes into one sport, and well, and then I got
to go to you know, travel the world with boxing.
So oh, okay, I guess, I guess that's an easy
choice for me. But yeah, I set myself there, go out.

(25:31):
I trained so hard. I'd take tuna and boiled eggs
and apples to school. When i'd watch my friends eat
the good food, sometimes I'd like, just give me a bite, please,
just share a little bit. But I knew. I didn't
know what it took, but I knew that I had
to kind of do everything I could. I wouldn't go
to parties and stuff. Not that I'm a big party
or anyway. I wouldn't call that a sacrifice, but the

(25:52):
normal teenage staff, I just did past that because it
was just all about training and competition for me. And
when it came to that year, the RIO twenty sixteen year,
to qualify you had to win the Australian Championships. There
was a woman there that had been the Australian chair
for years in years, and she was expected to win.
I came up from the youth's division and come up

(26:15):
and I won, which was incredible. I was so stoked.
I had to They challenged me again for the position.
I had to fight again and I won that again,
so I was happy I was like, right, I'm going
to the qualifiers for boxing, the international qualifiers. You had
to be top two in the top two in Asia,
in Oceania, or top four in the world. So it
was a tough qualification. I went over to Kazakhstan and

(26:39):
I drew the hometown girl first and I lost my
first fight, and that was it for me. That was it.
I just thought, WHOA. After all of that, I was
so heartbroken. I was shattered. I didn't want to go home,
and I didn't want to go to mom and dad
and face them and be, you know, like, after all
they'd done for me and all my friends and family,

(26:59):
the leaved in me. I didn't want to let them
all down. And obviously I had to go home to
go home. Flight there's my money, you stay here on
a holiday, non explore kazakhsade though, So I had to
go home. And then you realize that that's exactly where

(27:20):
I needed to be, around that support network, and that
my loved ones that don't actually value me because of
what I do, they value me because of me and
they love me for me. So that helped me a lot.
And then I kind of had to take the accountability
have a bit of self awareness, right, what do I

(27:41):
need to do? What can change? What is this taught me?
And so I was able to reflect and think, right,
you know, what do I need to do. I ended
up actually moving over to the Australian Institute of Sport. Well,
I was such a mouthful in Canberra AIS AIS for
short from now on, I had to move over. Oh
I had to. I moved over there just because there's

(28:04):
just a training center. There is nothing really around it
at all. There is you get your food, you walk
to the training center that you walk to the track. Yeah,
that's it. So I loved being in that environment just
just head down, didn't have to think about anything else.
And actually that kind of taught me there the importance

(28:25):
of strength conditioning. There's an old boxes logic and people
always say you don't want to get too big because
you're going to be too slow, But no, you can
be explosive and its strength and conditioning is so important.
So I was able to just learn a lot in
that way and being in that high performance environment all
the time. Yeah, and there were a few other things,

(28:46):
but that was really important because I had to change
that goal right rear it didn't work out for me,
what's next Tokyo. Tokyo is four years away. Four years
seems like a long time, but there's a lot to do.
I didn't realize it was actually to be five years.
But uh anyway, we yeah, I had to had to
work hard, and I guess that was a really good

(29:08):
thing to do because the Tokyo qualification year come along
and I always So we're going to Wuhan, China, and
February twenty twenty, that's where we were going. I've never
heard of the city before, and then it's all over
the news and where we were in. We're in camp
and waiting to go two days. Two days before we're

(29:30):
heading off. I've got my sanitizer and a mask. I'm like,
it's all good. I just won't like leave the room.
I'll just fight and go back to my room. But
then the city was shut down, so I was like,
we're probably good that I wasn't already there. Oh So
anyway back to Australia. Right five weeks time, we've got
another day. We're going to Amman, Jordan, and we go
back to a training camp in Thailand. We've been training

(29:52):
really hard in the heat and humidity over there. We're
in our last so the day before we leave, we've
got our last sparring session, the last round. In the
last thirty seconds, we're fighting away and the girl comes
up from a from a ducks she ducks under and
comes up and head butts me in the nose. Oh,
And I just went, oh, I might have swept. I

(30:15):
don't know to it be no, So I just went, oh,
my god, something like that. And I went to my
coach in the corner straight away because I knew something
was right. He's gone wigg with my nose. He's like, oh,
it's broken. I was like, oh my god, I can't
even tell you again, blubbery mess. I just I tried

(30:37):
to hold it in and they got out and I
was like, what am I good? I was just in
tears because I was like, you're kidding me. After this long,
I've worked so hard and moved away from my family
and friends and done everything I could, trained harder, trained
three times a day, and I ate everything whatever. I
like to put everything into this, and I'm like, after
all of that, I've got a broken nose. I've never

(30:59):
had a broken bone before. I didn't know how it
was going to work. How long I had to heal.
But we're heading over to to qualify as tomorrow. They've
taken me to Bangkok Hospital and when I've got there,
they brought the wheelchair out for me. They're wheeling me around.
I thought, you know what, I'm just going to accept this. Yeah,
I've got a photo taken to me and oh my god,
my nose is swollen. I look like, just changes your

(31:22):
whole face and yeah. I just thought. They go, oh,
can you fight with a splinter in your nose? And
I said, no, you cannot do that. I'm just going
to use this, this situation where the masks have just
come in to my advantage. I'm going to just hide it.
I'm going to just put a mask on and no
one's going to be able to see me. And so

(31:43):
that's what I did. I went to the qualifiers and
didn't tell anyone about it because I'm me and my
coach and my and my teammates that were there knew
about it, and I was like, I'm just going to
go and find because nothing's going to stop me. I'm cool, mum.
At the time, it's like it's okay, there's another qualify.
I was like, no, mama. I'm like, there's no I'm
fighting care. Lucky I did, because the next qualifiers got
canceled anyway, so this was my only chance. And I

(32:07):
ended up getting through three fights there with a broken
nose and it was okay.

Speaker 3 (32:12):
Didn't make you fight differently because you didn't want to
risk getting hit, so you were like, I'm getting this
job down, I'm gonna stay.

Speaker 2 (32:19):
So they didn't make you fight differently.

Speaker 1 (32:22):
So I didn't fight differently until I so what my
qualifying fight, I just put everything out there. I don't care.
I don't care. It might hurt, yes, but whatever, I'll
go through the pain because the adrenalin's going through you
as well. You know, when you get hit. You notice
you get hit in the boxing gym, so do over.
Maybe not everyone knows how you get hit and it's okay,

(32:44):
but like most of most of the time, the adrenaline
is going through you. You don't kind of notice that.
You notice that. You're like, oh, yeah, I got hit.
Probably put my hand up or don't do that again.
But I'm never in the going into the ring like
oh this is you know, I'm worried that I'm gonna
get hurt. Never ever, so I just went in normally
like I always would. Yeah, my nose is a little
bit more swollen, but it had come down by then

(33:06):
a couple of days later, thank god. And yeah, when
I qualified for the Olympics, that was one of the
happiest moments of my life. It was just such a
relief after all of that time. I was just like,
I'm done. Out of my hand was raised and I
dropped to the floor and I was like and then
I realized I've got to get up and like thank
my opponent. And I was so stoked. And then after that,

(33:27):
I you know, fought until the through to the final
and that was fine. I'm in the last fight. My
coach is like, well, you've already qualified now, so if
you get punched in the nose and stopping the fight,
I've never had a fight stopped every and I was
like no, So I fought super I was just whatever.
I got in the ring, and I was just like,
you know, on the outside, because I was like, if
you start this fight, I will be mad. But yeah,

(33:51):
it's only because he had that precaution, because we thought
we were going to a fight for the Olympics in
a couple of months. And it turns out we get
home and they think, hey, you know, the Olympics are
got to be canceled, and there was all this talk
and I was just gutted. I didn't I didn't know
how to. I didn't want to get out of bed
in the morning. So like, what's the point that I've
just qualified and now they're going to take that away
from me? Blah blah blah, feeling sorry for myself.

Speaker 3 (34:13):
So did the qualifying just hold out for another year
or did you have to requalify it?

Speaker 1 (34:17):
Did they lasted? So because they postponed it for the year,
I was like, that's okay, I can do that. I
can wait another year. I waited this long already, so yeah,
that was that was good. The qualification stayed, and then
they canceled the rest of the qualifications that year and
continued them on just before before the Olympics. Actually it
was held in twenty twenty one. So it was all good.

(34:40):
But my preparation wasn't that great. To be honest, I
was kind of stuck at home. I just moved to Melbourne.

Speaker 2 (34:47):
There's worst place to be, a bad timing.

Speaker 1 (34:51):
The best place to be. It was just cold for
ten months of the year. Just felt like I was
freezing coming from Perth and then yeah, going, oh yeah,
now I'm not stuck for so it was I think
it was like seven months or something in my just
in my house, I couldn't go to the gym. I
think towards the end of it, I could go to
the gym once a week something like that. It was ridiculous.
I had no equipment at home, and for me, I

(35:12):
just I love to eat and that's what I was
just probably wasn't watching the scale enough realized Okay, if yes,
I talk about weight, because this is obviously weight based sport.
I fight at seventy five kilos. I checked the scales
in February. I was eighty nine kilos. Oh shit, I
was fighting in July at seventy five. And I know

(35:33):
it sounds super irresponsibly, was I was just my mind
was just I don't know, I just didn't see it
in myself. I thought I'm not going to step on
the scales or sorted out. And then I didn't realize
I've never been that heavy before. That was a big shock.

Speaker 3 (35:46):
And then.

Speaker 1 (35:48):
Butted really utilizing my dietitian We've got another thing there.
But yeah, quarantine to get out of Melbourne and be
able to train freely, and then yeah, it got back
into the swing of it about that time as well.
So yeah, it was a bit of a challenge. I
keep talking, but yeah, we haven't even gone to Paris yet.

Speaker 3 (36:10):
It's such a that is such a great story though,
Like just listening to that, so I'm like, what an awesome,
bloody hero's journey story.

Speaker 2 (36:18):
That is, the whole broken nose and the carry on.

Speaker 1 (36:20):
And then.

Speaker 2 (36:23):
Mom, yeah, what there you go? Fucking gone that question
gone halfway through.

Speaker 1 (36:32):
Asking it, I don't remember.

Speaker 3 (36:34):
On the same page, I was gonna say, what, in
terms of making weight, do you sit generally on weight
throughout time or do you have to do a weight
management process in the lead into fights? Like how much
do you normally when you're not in lockdown and.

Speaker 2 (36:52):
Letting it get away from you? Is it a process
for you?

Speaker 1 (36:56):
Again, this is a good question because boxing from a
new age, you'd always hear the guys. I'd listen to
the guys in the gym and they'd be like, just
you know, just kind of starve yourself and just suck
on the icy poles and have a lolly here and
there to get you, like it was ridiculous, Like I
should not have been listening to these guys, Like we
just just didn't know any better, right, and so it's

(37:17):
been a bit of a learning journeys. But I used
to just do that. I used to like, you know,
not hardly anything. And I struggle cutting the weight because
my body's just holding onto everything that I put into
it because it's in survival mode. And then I'd finally
cut the weight after just sweating it all off and
wear a plastic bag so a sweatsuit basically every single
day for training and then not hydrate myself.

Speaker 3 (37:38):
It was actually ridiculous, and like a high performance sport,
I always think and I'm like, how the fuck. I
once went into the sauna with my mate Courtney when
she was cutting for her final like weight cut for
the fight, and I was like, I'm going to jump
in with you and just see how I feel, just
because I wasn't fighting on that fight, and fuck it
made me feel like I'm like how does she? And

(38:00):
then fight a state titled fight? Now, like how do
you perform at your optimal when you get no food
in your body and you're dehydrating yourself?

Speaker 2 (38:08):
And you're starving yourself.

Speaker 1 (38:09):
That's it. That's it. I remember doing a sauna and
steam room sessions where I go like five blocks to
twenty minutes, I'm already dehydrated, i haven't drunk water, and
I'm like crawling out of it afterwards. This as a teenager,
so I again, I could use that when I'm not
making sense. So when I forget your questions, I can
say because of that, you joke about it, But honestly,
it's like I really wish that they were like now

(38:31):
it's getting better, I hope and in every gym that
there's more knowledge around it, because yeah, it was. It
was ridiculous. So when I would finally cut the weight
after not eating hardly anything, I would binge. I would
binge hard, and I'd put it all on like easily.
And so it was this constant yo yo for me
over the years. After that experience where I went up

(38:52):
almost fifteen kilos over my division, I started really taking
it seriously and thinking, right, let's you know, work with
a dietician to start coming up with a bit more
of a plan and so, you know, and fighting more
often through the year. Kept that. Basically, I wanted to
say about three four kilos over max, because then I

(39:13):
knew ways that I could manipulate what I was eating,
not eating any less. I was still eating the same amount,
but I'd go and like have lessons of salt content
in the last five days because you hold onto more water.
Just things like that. And I feel amazing getting into
the ring because I wasn't dehydrating myself and I wasn't
taking away food and important things for energy. It's just, yeah,

(39:37):
it's crazy there people even a sauna. I won't use
a sauna now before the night before I fight or anything,
because I've seen studies that actually it does affect your
performance the next day. So I really will just make
sure I eat the right things, eat well throughout my
time so that I'm doing it responsibly. And I feel
amazing And it really made the difference. That was one

(39:57):
of the major changes that I had Tokyo going into Paris,
and I feel like it made a massive difference. And
now I'm in a healthy mindset. I guess like I
haven't weighed myself post Olympics. I haven't got my next
fight date whatever at the moment, and I haven't I
haven't needed to check the scales, and I'm learning to

(40:18):
you know, eat well, fuel myself, fuel carbs before a
training session, protein posts to make sure that you're recovering
your muscles and things like that. So just just learning
about the different foods that you can eat and just
making the right choices.

Speaker 3 (40:34):
Yeah, Ron, all right, tell me, so tell me about
the Tokyo first.

Speaker 1 (40:41):
Hmmm, yes, so so obviously qualified getting go over to Tokyo.
It's actually before that. We're in training camp and we're
just you know, we've we had to fight so hard
to be able to get there was a couple of
us on the team. We had to fight so hard
to be able to leave Australia early. We hadn't fought
in eighteen months since the last the qualifiers to the Olympics.

(41:05):
Were like, we need to get some sparring or something internationally.
So luckily the last four weeks were able to head
off to the US and then to Japan a little
bit early to be able to do some training with
other people, which is needed in boxing. You need to
be able to push yourself against the best, like yes,
I could spa. Guys and men they fight differently to women,
and often sometimes they might be a bit strong, you

(41:27):
might have hesitation in certain ways. So I wanted to
fight well, fight spa people in my division you know
around the world. That's they're going to push you to
be your best. And so finally we do do that
a couple of weeks before, which wasn't enough, but it
was whatever. I mean. Harry Garside, my teammate, he did
the same preparation. I guess I probably didn't probably did

(41:49):
know exactly the same. He did more responsible with his weight,
but he he won a bronze medal with the same preparation.
But for me, it just it just wasn't was an
idea and there's no excuses there. It just is what
it is, and it helped me be better for Paris.
But anyway, get over there. The draw is done and

(42:12):
I'm up against this woman from Panama. Hadn't fought her before,
watched her stuff, and she's She's just got a bit
of a different style. She's Southport, left handed, she's very long,
and I had this certain tactics that I'd work with
my coach going into the fight. It didn't work at all.
I just nothing was working for me. I didn't fight

(42:34):
my best at all getting into that ring, and it
was weird. The stadium completely empty. There was a couple
of people from each team, like a couple of teammates,
and this massive stadium, and these fake applauds happening over
the speaker at random intervals, not at the right time.
So when there's nothing happening, there's a big cheer, and
when there's a big combo or something, it's just.

Speaker 2 (42:55):
Weird.

Speaker 1 (42:57):
And like you, I'm not really noticing that in the ring,
to be honest, but it was a bit of a
different environment. You finally hear of the Olympic Games, everything
I've dreamed of, and then it's just silence, and my
performance just it wasn't what it needed to be. Was
I knew I was capable of so much more so
it was I was just kind of gutted that that
was it. And so at the end of the fight,

(43:19):
the Panamanian's hand was raised, she raised, she won the fight,
and I thought in a different way again, I was
just I was so upset because I finally made it
to the Olympics. I dream of mine come true, and
I didn't fight well at all. I knew I was
better than like what I what I put out there,
and people were watching me at home, and you know,

(43:41):
people expected all of this so much of me, and
I just I was just so upset. As soon as
I stepped out of the ring, I was like, I've
got so much more. I remember seeing to myself like
I need to put everything I've got into Paris. Like
I straight away started reflecting what else do I need
to do? And then you know, I get out into
the back and then I remember there's the warm up

(44:01):
area where we would just I was just excitedly warmed up.
There was these big stairs going up there, but I
remember after my fire, I was just looked up at
these stairs, so I can't do it. I was just
so upset. I couldn't even walk up the stairs. I
was just towel over my head, like what. I don't know,
It's just it's just different. I guess they go into
the ring with his mindset of like it's life or death,

(44:23):
like really put so much on ourselves to just be
our best and just for all the all the work
up that had come to that. I was like, that's
what I put out there. And I was like, oh,
so I fel hard to be able to stay in
the village, to be able to cheer on my teammate

(44:43):
Harry to win the medal because I said, the stadium's
empty boxing, it's all on the judges. There's a guy
judges around the outside. If I'm screaming every time he
you know, lands a little shot or a big shot
or whatever, purely that will help. So I was trying
to I was trying to convince the chef to mission
and he was like, all right, just say what because
everyone at that time you had to leave within them
was at twenty four or forty eight hours you had
to be out back on a play into Australia. So

(45:06):
I was very grateful I could stay around and watch
him and he ends up with in the middle and yeah,
to be a part of that was amazing and pushed
me to be better. So this time around, I got
home three years now, we've got till Paris, which is
obs a much shorter time than usual. But I really
had to reflect, really like on what I needed to

(45:27):
do to be better. The weight making thing was a
big one for me, being responsible with my weight and
really just eating the right things. Another big one for
me was sleep. I'm a terrible sleeper and just when
there's a lot of a lot going on. My mind's
always a million miles an hour. Go to bed, and
I if I just say let's just lay there straight away,

(45:49):
I wake myself back up thinking about everything. So I
had to really get a good sleep routine, make sure
I was going to bed at the same night and
same night, the same time, and waiting up, you know,
same time. Just giving myself a good, good routine around that,
really focusing and that, and that helped a big time
as well. That's the biggest form of recovery and helps

(46:11):
everything performance, all the rest of it. Uh. And then yeah,
I think again. Another thing was be like utilizing the
people I have around me. So I kind of just
always have this all right, I's all right, I can
do it by myself, you know, just you have this.
I don't know you just I guess it's hard to
reach out for help in different ways. And so I thought, right, well,

(46:32):
I've got I've got this dietician that I'm going to
keep in contact with. I've got a strength and conditioning
coach that I can start. We can just start communicating more, right,
check in every you know, every week or or whatever.
Make sure I'm talking to them properly and uh yes,
sports psychologists never really use that. Like I just thought,
I'm fine. No, we worked massively on mindfulness and practicing

(46:54):
gratitude and having a bit of a routine coming into
the fight, like what am I very much? I like
it right there, and then I get obsessed with it,
so like I go into the go to the to
the fights two and a half hours before it. Why
because I just want to make sure that I'm not
missing anything, people aren't getting stopped or I don't know.
I don't want to I don't want to hate rushing
and being like, oh my god, I'm gonna get there.

(47:15):
I'm gonna fight. Like no, I'll get there two and
a half hours early. Go to the back, headphones on, go,
lay down, play some Sudoku or whatever else. It's solitary
and yeah, and then I'm very like on a timer,
like right, this is the time I'm going to start
warming up. This is the you know, like I get
and I get really like around my schedules once I
have them, but maybe a bit too clean on to them.

(47:38):
Once they work, I'm like, bow, I've got to do
the exact same thing. Because of boxing. Well, we're in
Olympic boxing, we fight over a multiple day, so we
weigh in that morning, and we fight the same day,
and then we you know, next day, we fight way
in again the next morning. So if one coach wraps
my hands, they will do it. They have to do
it for the rest of the competition because if I won,

(47:59):
then why would I change it. So I just get
too much with it, Like I'll have like a like
a nose before I fight, and like I know it
was a Gatorader something gatorade in my in my bottle,
but then the same coach that did that has to
do it again. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, guys, It's just
and they're like, it's fine, we understand, we know how

(48:20):
you work. I'm like, it's just I need this to
be the same.

Speaker 2 (48:25):
Yeah, I get it, one hundred percent get it. What's
it like?

Speaker 3 (48:29):
So for people who don't, there's there's few sports where
you are the only person responsible for your performance. And
I feel like, like, I so I know the question
about I'm trying to ask it in a way that
people understand, Like what's it like to go in have
that observation of yourself that I don't fight like this.

(48:52):
I haven't done my best, but pinpointing what made me fight,
like because I used to do it. I sometimes I
would go in to fights and I'm like, why am
I not me? When I'm in this fight and I've
sparred so well and I've done this with the boys
and I'm lit and I've been this person in training,
and then all of a sudden, I come into this
fight and I'm like, and now I can't control myself.

Speaker 2 (49:14):
Now I can't have this.

Speaker 3 (49:15):
It doesn't feel the same, and I don't know I'm
the only one that can fix that.

Speaker 2 (49:19):
Where does that come from?

Speaker 1 (49:21):
Yeah? For sure, because as well, I think it was
kind of for me realizing that like it it would
be my nerves. When I was more nervous and things,
I'd put more pressure on myself. I'd tie myself up
before I even got into the ring, and then I
get in there and I just I'd be desperate to try,
like you know, and I wasn't fighting like I spied
really well and I've done everything I wanted to do,
and then I get in the ring and I just

(49:42):
just oh, it'd be too much, Like I just get
out there and yeah, it wasn't doing everything that I
kind of set out to do. So. I think the
routine and the little things like that that I do
before my fights helped me. The mindfulness stuff helped me massively,
because again, I just I'm not always I'm not an
like to be fair, not like always always a confident person.

(50:04):
I've gained a lot of confidence through this sport and
the journey that I've been on, but I have to,
like doubt to always be in my head, like, oh,
what if this happens? What like what if I don't fight? Well,
what if this? But like I've just got to remind myself.
I'm like, why am I thinking this? It's because I
care about it because I want to win. And Okay,
like right, just let those thoughts go, right, they're just
to try to visualize them just going going away, going

(50:26):
down a stream, or if floating off on a cloud. Whatever.
Just give myself a moment, right, I sit myself down,
Just do a little bit of box breathing a couple even,
or just like three deep breaths, bang my chest three times.
That's a good one. I'm like hard that kind of
I heard that resets. I don't know some kind of thing,
but I just stick to it if that doesn't work.
And then I sit there and I go, all right,
I'm gonna go notice what's around me? So I go

(50:48):
through my senses. What's five things I can see around me?
I'm such an unobservant person. I won't. I walk into
a room and I'm like, I didn't even notice that
person's there whatever, just because I'm just I don't know.
I guess I'm just focused on one thing. I'm like, Okay,
what can I see around me? Five things? Four things
I can hear, three things I can touch, two things
I can smell, one thing I can taste. I go
through that after my breath. So I'm like, wow, I'm calm,

(51:11):
but I'm focused. I feel good. And before I get
into the ring, and in my whole preparation, I do
a lot of video analysis. And what I mean by
that is I'll go through fights for myself. I'll watch
myself fight and look at things I need to do
and what, you know, tactics and stuff I was doing
there and what I could have done better. But not
only only that. I'd have a list of my potential opponents.

(51:33):
I'd have them all down and my division and i'd write,
you know, all sorts of things, strengths and weaknesses, whatever
tactics that I go into that fight. So when I
go into to I've drawn someone for my fight. So right,
I'm fighting this woman here from this country. Right, this
is what I need to work on, and I'll narrow
it down to three things, no more than three because

(51:53):
then I'm two. There's too much going on. Three things
that I need to focus on for this fight, and
it could be for myself for them. You know, what
are three tactics I'm going to go in with And
I'll narrow it down from like a sentence to like
one word. It'll be like body if I need to
like focus on more body shots. So then you know whatever,
I have these three words, and I've done my mindfulness,

(52:13):
I've done my breathing. Right, what's those three things? Body?
I don't know. I can't think of anything at the moment.
Very very good. But yeah, so and then I have
those three things. That's all I need to do. I
know what I need to do, and I can't work
on you. You know what what gave me strength? I'd come
up with. That's actually that's actually what I haven't talked about.
So I come from my My mum is Maori, so

(52:37):
we come from obviously mighty heritage and come from warriors,
and I kind of wanted to come up with a
word that brought that in, that warrior mentality, that would also,
you know, give me strength and build me up because
I want to go in I'll go into the ring
with all the confidence. I want to build myself up.
And there's one word that I'd used that I'd just

(52:57):
be like right, just you know, like I'd say it
out loud and like that that would build me up
and then I'd be ready, I'm focused, I'm not no,
my heart's not grazing a million miles an hour and
all the rest of it. So, yeah, that makes sense.
I'll go guy, yeah, for a while, don't I But
you know, you get there eventually.

Speaker 2 (53:15):
I love that. That was really valuable to listen to.
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (53:19):
Oh it was theme.

Speaker 2 (53:22):
How was Paris different to Tokyo?

Speaker 1 (53:26):
Yeah, so again, all those things that I talked about,
the support network, the mindfulness that the you know, practicing
that routine that I was going into the fight, the eating,
the sleep. Just I just wanted to do tick off
all the boxes that I possibly could that I'd learned
along the way. I'd learned so much you can't learn

(53:47):
at all, but I knew things that that I can
change to better myself. Those one percenters, as cliche as
that is, but I yeah, I feel like that really helped.
I built myself but well, and I practiced that a
lot through the journey. I think what for me, I
kind of realized that. I was like, oh, wow, I'm
getting better. So We're to the twenty twenty three World

(54:11):
Championships and at that tournament, I'm I've won my first
five whatever, I won my fights before I'm going into
the To get into the medal rounds, to get into
the semifinals, I need to beat Panama, the same girl
that I lost to at the Olympics. And I thought, right,
this isn't a test, you know, Rasis. And it's funny

(54:34):
because I actually got the opportunity to spa her. We
just got to We got to the so we got
to New Delhi, that's where the World Championships were. We
got there a few days early and set up a
little spa with her. So, okay, we go. So so
we're in the gym and I'm working on a few things.
But I was just what I was doing is I
was trying a few different things, but I'll do them once.

(54:56):
But she got the better of my spa. She she
would have won. If it was a fight, she would
have won it. I was like, okay, but but I
but I noticed things. I was like, right, that worked,
that didn't. That worked, I didn't. So then then I
drew her. I didn't know it was going to actually
fight her at the World's Okay. Well, luckily we got
that spiring session in that was perfect and I it

(55:17):
was a close fight, but I but I got the
win and my hand was raised and I jumped like
five feet in the air.

Speaker 2 (55:23):
I was.

Speaker 1 (55:25):
This is this is it. I've improved, I've worked so
hard and this just shows that. And ended up going
to the final. I lost my split decision. It was
a countback split decision in the final against the hometown girl.
All over the posters and stuff and whatever is it is?
I thought, I want it. This happens in boxing all

(55:46):
the time. It's such a it's up to the judges basically.
But but to get her coach and the Indian Performer
high performance director apologizing to me, I was like, well, oh, anyway, anyway,
lost the split decision, almost world champion there, but I
got a silver and I just thought this, this shows

(56:07):
that I've come so far. But I also put a
bit more pressure on me, right because they were like, whoa,
You're winning medals at the Olympic division the year before
the Olympics, like you gotta win, you gotta win a
medal now, So there's more pressure on me. But I
think all that I've learned it helped me get through.
I'm just practiced with my gratitude. Was what am I

(56:27):
grateful for today? Instead of just always focusing on, Oh,
you know, I've got to win, I've got to do this,
I got to do that. No, No, what am I
grateful for today? Sit there, Sit back and think all
right again? Look around like what's around me? Like try
and notice and enjoy those little moments as well. So
that helped a lot. But coming into Paris, I was
I was so ready, so ready. I put in everything,

(56:51):
I had, everything I know, I didn't leave any stone
unturned or anything like that. Honestly, were in a training
camp before that in Germany, and in this training camp,
I'm like, let's just get there already. I'm so so
over training I just I was so ready to get
into that ring. And we head to Paris and all

(57:14):
was good. I'm excited with the drawer. They do the draw.
For some reason, I get really nervous around the draw.
It's just like faked, Oh am I going to fight.
I've studied all of these I've studied the crap out
of all of these girls that I could possibly fight,
and I had done thousands of sparring rounds and I've
fought many times. I've had I think eighty nine or

(57:35):
no ninety five international fights, so something like that. Anyway,
I fought a lot of these girls and out of
the list, there was only two that I'd never worked
with the pool, I hadn't sparred or fought. And the
drawer came out and I've got them both. The first
two rounds, I was like that extra, just that unknown.

(57:57):
I was like, okay, that makes me very nervous. It's okay,
like I've done everything I can for this. Uh So
I've got a Mexican first up, and she was shorter
than me, which is odd because in my division I'm
actually one of the shorter one seventy five killers. They're
all quite tall and she's short of than me. I'm like, okay,

(58:18):
I've got the reach here, let's go. And but I
knew she was tough. I knew she would just keep
coming forward. I've watched her fight before and a few
people had actually mentioned to me, like, don't underestimate her.
She's she's tough and then strong, and like she just
she's relentless. She won't let you off the hook. And well, right,
that's fine. I went into that fight like it was

(58:39):
the final. Every fight with for me, it was the final.
I wanted to I needed to win that to get
past anything else. So it was the final. And well,
straight up, I knew she she did what I thought
she would. She came at me, and I used my feet,
got around the ring and tried to you know, punch
and move. And then there was a point where like
she kind of like at me and I threw this

(59:01):
right hook and I like moved out to the side
at the same time. So it was a quick like
to make her fall into into the ropes. And it worked,
and I was like, brilliant, We'll do that again, you know, fight, fight,
and do it again. The right hook off fell into
the ropes again. I was like, we're just gonna keep
doing this is perfect and I really enjoyed that. I
had a great fight, won every round. I got my

(59:22):
hand raised there, and yes, it wasn't a repeat of
Togyo that was in my head before. I'm like, don't repeack.
You know, what if you lose again, what if you
miss that? I know it's not in my control. I
just thought, I'm gonna go out there and do the
best that I can. I know I can do it,
and yeah, got won the fire and I was just
absolutely stoked. Then I thought, right, I'm going to enjoy

(59:43):
this moment for the next couple of hours and then
I'm gonna reset because it was I had a few
days in between the Olympics. They spread it out. It's
Ober two week period and I had to win four
fights to get the gold. So that's fine, I've got
I've got a couple of days that I'm going to
just not back in, but I'm going to go see
my part. I know who ended up coming over and
just you know, enjoy this little moment. Next, I had

(01:00:05):
to reset because I was actually drawn against the Moroccan
and she is the super heavyweight world champion. She's been
that for years. I don't even know when she lost
her last fight. She never loses. She's massive, and I thought,
all right, okay, so we're gonna obviously don't want to
stand there and get hit. I've got to be able
to move out of the way because she's strong and

(01:00:26):
she would throw all her weight into these punches. So
when she when she gets someone, it shows, and that
can sway the judges like that, especially when you get
a hit early on on you and I just say, oh, well,
you know they're probably going to be watching her for
the rest of the fight, so you're going to make
a good impression early on. So yeah, getting into that fight,
I was actually going to go in a certain way.

(01:00:48):
I was going to go in where I was just
going inside and because she was so big and just
working as hard as I could for the but you know,
in the inside and staying in there. And my tactics changed. Actually,
just before we went out, I saw the girl that
she beat to get in. She was fighting her at
long range and she was about the same height as me.
And I fight very well long I fight, I fight

(01:01:09):
well both. But you know, I was like, right, I
can use my foot feet try and find the opportunities here,
and then when I see those opportunities, get in the
get in the inside, mix it up. But I don't know.
I'm home, and I getting too technical. I'm trying to like,
I love it.

Speaker 2 (01:01:21):
I'm loving it. I'm hanging off every word.

Speaker 1 (01:01:23):
Because also because I'm literally back, I'm thinking of me
in the ring, like I'm back in this moment, I'm
like trying to trying to paint the picture. But anyway,
I actually from from the start, it was just like
a moment where everything clicked, my feet, my hands, everything,

(01:01:45):
and I was like I was punching her and I
wasn't getting punched back, and I was like, this is
It's all clicking together. It's like everything I'd ever done
to prepare for this was for this moment. That was
my favorite fight ever. I enjoyed that so much. I
just and watching the footage back is so funny because
I might here like you know, looking up right up

(01:02:05):
at her like I just look so but I just
it just all came together and I got my hand
raised again there and I was like, holy shit, I
have just secured myself a medal for Australia created history.
What the hell like this. It was just incredible. So
I got out of the rings straight away and they

(01:02:25):
actually through to the media bit and I just like,
the guy has gone to interview me and I've grabbed
his mic off him and I didn't realize they did it.
I was just so excited. There's so much adrenaline and god,
I just started talking my absolutely heart out and I
didn't realize that he's asking me questions. You can't hear
him because I'm not sharing the mic. I've just got
it here and I'm just ready to go and I'm like, yeah,

(01:02:47):
I'm going to war and next fight. I'm everything into it,
like let's go. And just a few people watch that bag.
That's what probably I think more people in Australia probably
saw that interview than actually the fights. I don't know.
That's what I got coming to the more because I
just thought it was the funniest thing. A few people
gave me like a little karaoke mic as well. Afterwards.
They're like, you know, this is your own one, you

(01:03:08):
can have this. I love this.

Speaker 2 (01:03:12):
I love hearing this.

Speaker 3 (01:03:13):
I am I've gone covering goosebumps right now. I feel
like I'm there. I want to go is it. Can
I go google that video?

Speaker 1 (01:03:20):
Can you can't? Yeah? Sure, But it's just it's so
crazy even just thinking about that then and thinking about
this really shy kid and to that moment they're like
taking the mic and having that that you know, I
don't know, it's whatever about me, just the possession to
just take that mic and it's mine now. Ah yeah.

(01:03:41):
It just it shows how far I've come in this journey,
which is where it's pretty cool as well, this journey.

Speaker 3 (01:03:47):
I love this and I love how much you've shared
the like the detail of how it is, because it
just highlights how technical, how adaptable we have to be,
how it's not just about working on your own craft,
but also sitting there with a number of tools at

(01:04:07):
your level, a number of tools and strategies that is
beyond comprehension.

Speaker 2 (01:04:11):
And in the middle of knowing.

Speaker 3 (01:04:13):
All of that, you've got to decide which ones are
appropriate in a split second, all in a pre preparation moment.
And then also when you step into the ring, you
have to make a decision of am I following that
what I thought was going to be the best angle,
or do I need to.

Speaker 2 (01:04:32):
Adapt and change? And it's fucking exciting.

Speaker 1 (01:04:35):
Yeah, it's such a fast paced chess game boxing. You've
got to see be able to see what's coming, but
also you know, doing what you need to do and
not getting hit and moving out of the way and
trying to win each round. Because there's three rounds we
fight three three minute rounds. I'm going to rest in between.
So you know, your coach can give you a certain
amount of feedback, which helps massively, but you've also got

(01:04:59):
to be very independent to be able to figure it
all out for yourself in the ring. You can't wait
a whole round, waste a whole round for your coach
to tell you what don't do that, what are you
doing because that's one whole round out of three rounds
and the judges are probably watching that your opponent now,
So you've really got to figure it out for yourself. Yeah,

(01:05:20):
it's actually insane. Sometimes I'm like, oh, this is such
a yeah, such a crazy sport. But I mean they're
each sport has their own massive challenges, and I mean, yeah,
that's just boxing.

Speaker 3 (01:05:33):
I just think there's there's so many moving parts to
boxing that it does take years and years and years
before you even learn what there is to learn like
I know that in some of my later years, like
the last fights I had, which is a few years
ago now, but getting to stages with my coach where

(01:05:53):
I was like, oh, you know, he's bestowing new stuff
on me that he had not let me do before.
And you kind of think, oh, you can't. You don't
do that because it's because it's wrong, not wrong, but
that's not how we do it. And it's like, no,
he just needs to be able to trust me with
one skill set first, and then once he knows that

(01:06:14):
I've nailed and I have the capacity for more, he
gives it to me. And I was just like, fucking hell,
it's been a decade in this sport and I'm still
learning brand new things.

Speaker 1 (01:06:23):
Yeah. Yeah, That's the thing I also love about boxing
is the fact that no one's ever perfect everything. There's
always things to work on. But not only that, it's
not just you don't have to be a certain build
or you know, you can be short, tall, whatever kind
of body shape you use it to your advantage. Like
I don't have long arms. I'm a bit shorter than

(01:06:44):
in my division. I guess like sometimes it's good to
be long so you can get more range. And stuff,
But no, I use what I have to my advantage.
I'm more explosive. I'm usually a lot faster and I
can I can make that work, and you just you're
do you make it work? But not only that as well. Yeah,
I'm on the sport now. But it doesn't matter what
age you started. I started young. It was great for me,

(01:07:05):
but there's some people in my team that have started
in their twenties on even I think started yeah, like
late twenties even thirties that went to the Olympics with us.
So it's it's yeah, you're never You're never too old
to start anything. Whatever your goal or challenge is, You're
never too old to start. Just get out there and
have a go.

Speaker 2 (01:07:24):
Oh I love that. What's what's next for you?

Speaker 1 (01:07:28):
What's next? Is a question I ask myself all the time. No,
so it's it's obviously been yeah months now since the Olympics.
I don't want to count, but I really just told myself,
I'm like, I'm going to take in this moment. Should

(01:07:49):
I should actually go into the my my semi final,
the fight that I actually lost, actually to kind of
paint the picture, because really, like I went into this
fight and this one was at the Rolling Gaross in Paris.
It was you know, Serena and Williams never got punched
in the face there, so you know, I just feel

(01:08:11):
like that that's pretty good. So Rolling Gaross, there's massive crowd.
I fighting this this woman from China. She's actually beaten
me a couple of times in the past. She's one
of the smartest fighters I've ever come across it. She
adapts really well in the ring, which is it was

(01:08:32):
challenging because so I came out in the first round,
I had all the right tactics. I won the fight
on all judges school sorr, I won the round on
all judges schoorecards. She came out the second ring, the
second ring, Oh my god, see what am I doing now?
The second round. She came out the second round, and
she knew to smuggle me a bit so to because

(01:08:56):
I was fighting well long, I was picking her atha,
I was doing all the things. She was like, okay,
don't let her do that again. I'm gonna hold her
and try it, you know. So she'd try to kind
of like, yeah, not allow me to fight my fight,
and it got messy, which worked well for her. So
I started, like you know, tangling up more and grabbing
my hand, and it takes a lot of effort to
try and get out of those clinches and try and

(01:09:17):
fight my way out of it. And I thought I
thought I did. Okay, I thought I did all right.
I didn't know how the round went until I went
back to my coach in the corner. So the coaches
they see the scores. Actually between each round, they come
up with the scores, and it came up. My coach goes,
you're even going into the last round, So meeting she'd
won that round on all George Judges school cards. And

(01:09:41):
my heart sank a little bit because I thought I
thought I would have got a couple of them. But okay,
let's just put everything I possibly have into this, like
I'm just leaving. I'm gonna leave it all in the ring,
and I did. I just went out there. I had
a bit of a blood nose as well, just you know,
it happened. Sometimes my nose does bleed a little bit,
but whatever, So I'm gone out there and I put

(01:10:01):
it all that. I had nothing left in the tank
at all, fought my heart out. At the end of
the fight, her hand got raised and you know what,
like this is, this is, this moment is crazy to me.
I haven't had a sad moment. I didn't have it.
I wasn't sad. I wasn't I wasn't upset. I knew

(01:10:21):
I put it all out there. She got a hand raised,
I thanked her. It was a it was an awesome fight,
and I just took that moment. I looked around and
I stood in the ring for it maybe another love
thirty seconds or whatever. I've stood there and I looked
around at this in this stadium. Oh my god, like
I'm here, I'm on the podium. I don't I don't

(01:10:41):
go to the final, but I'm on the podium. I've
put my all into this whole journey. I'm so so
proud of myself. And I just honestly, like haven't been
upset into this day, like which is weird because you know,
after after I lost, usually you know, gut it and whatever.
But I just I was proud and I still am

(01:11:06):
of everything I put into that journey, everything I left
in the ring. And to be honest, actually I haven't
even watched that fight back yet because it's such a
positive thing for me at the moment and we're all
our biggest critics. I know when I watch it back,
I'll be like, oh, why did I do that? Why
did I do this? But no, I'm not ready for

(01:11:27):
that yet. I just feel like once I'm ready, when
I have another fight set or whatever else, I'll watch
it back. Obviously you need to do that to improve
and to learn from those mistakes or whatever else, or
learn what to show what I did good. But it's
positive for me and I'm happy. And so I told myself, right,

(01:11:48):
I'm going to just take all these opportunities that I
get and say yes to everything I can and just
why not do this, do that, like try new things.
This is my moment to something a little bit different.
So also I was, I was. I was burnt out. Afterwards,
I knew I'd left everything in that training camp, everything

(01:12:10):
in that ring. I was burnt out, and I knew
I was not. I told my coach, You're not going
to see me for a couple of months in the gym,
Like no, I'm gonna need a bit of a breakup
of this. So just yeah, it's been it's consumed me
for a while now. It's been my every single thought.
So and then like when I get really obsessive about something,

(01:12:31):
I've really put my all and set my whole self
and everything I do into it, Like even to the
fact that I wouldn't wear like gray clothes or silver
jeweler or anything, because that would be that would symbolize silk. Second,
and I wanted to be gold. I wanted to be
first gold medal of my phone screen. Save. This is
all for the past like four or five years that
I'd had this on. So I just thought, I'm want

(01:12:53):
to change my screensave it at my dog now, like
it's time to just be a normal person and just say,
yesterday's awesome opportunities to go and talk to schools and
show my medal and really share that journey, because an
Olympic medal, like although you know people you think like, oh,
you just put in it a safe like look after it. No,

(01:13:15):
my motto or my thing that I've been trying to
do is really just share it with as many people
as I can, kids at schools or we just want
to have a little touch, and I'll make sure everyone
can have a little hold. And because I imagine that
like as a kid, if I got to hold Olympic
medal that would have made such an impact on me.
So even if it doesn't have give them an Olympic

(01:13:35):
goal or whatever, just try your best. I always talk
to them. I share a lot of lessons that I've
learned along the way. But it can just even have
a goal at a sport or whatever, be active, whatever
it encourages. It'll be something positive. So that I've even
gone to you know, to to businesses and stuff like that,
and I've had people come up to me afterwards and
be like, I haven't like I did you know BJJ.

(01:13:57):
I think this woman said, I haven't done it for
eight years, but I'm going to get back to the gym.
Or the little girl said to me the other day.
It's just like I want to be like you and
I oh my heart, like that is beautiful. Like if
I can do one you know, small thing for them,
like it'll just make my day and it will make
everything worth it.

Speaker 3 (01:14:17):
So yeah, I've got such a girl crush, such a
You're such a.

Speaker 2 (01:14:24):
Wholesome role model.

Speaker 3 (01:14:26):
The way that you talk about like how you have
responded to just being present, taking it in and just
the tone when you say I'm burnt out, I'm having
a break. There's no judgment, there's no shame, there's just
this really beautiful acceptance of I put everything in, Like

(01:14:46):
I just I can't even explain it, but it's just
such a.

Speaker 2 (01:14:49):
Good role model.

Speaker 3 (01:14:51):
Thank you, Like thank you for that, because there's so
many women in sport looking for role models and they're
hard to find, and you're under so much pressure to
be in that space that it's hard to get through that.
And like you're through it and you've just remained fucking
rock solid.

Speaker 2 (01:15:10):
I'm so proud. I'm so proud to know you.

Speaker 1 (01:15:13):
Oh, thank you so much. We like, yeah, there's almos
he still challenges, like I still don't know what's next
and stuff, but I'm trying to be kind to myself
and say, you know, you're going through a bed It's okay.
Like I'm finding that love for the boxing gym again.
And I was just went away on a camp for
the USY team again, so you know, doing things like that,
I'm like, Okay, I'm finding the enjoyment in doing that

(01:15:36):
and I love being active and just just and also
just again just getting back myself do a bit of
a routine. But again, the thing I want to kind
of focus on is just trying to better myself a
little bit in it could be any way, could be
doing a little course, it could be I don't know,

(01:15:57):
even just spending more time with my family at Like
just doing things to better myself and to continuously grow
I think is really important. But yeah, don't have a
fight date yet, probably won't fight for the for the
rest of the year, to be honest, Like I'm just
not ready to kind of put myself back into all
that I know is needed. But i still want to

(01:16:20):
go to LA Like that's a big goal, Like and
I'm not putting, Like I want the goal, right, but
I'm not gonna put it. It's a b or end
or if I don't get that, I'm not worth anything. No,
because I know I've accomplished so much in this sport,
and like it's not all about accomplishments. It's it's about
it's about the journey again. I just it's such cliche things,

(01:16:43):
but it is, like I just I just want to
make sure I'm enjoying every part of it, every part.
I don't love running and stuff, but I do I
enjoyed the after I've got.

Speaker 3 (01:16:54):
That, So how can how can the listeners both follow
and find you. But is there anything else that you'd
like to support or as any way we can we
can help you.

Speaker 1 (01:17:10):
Ah well, you can follow and support on Instagram or
of a Facebook page. Just Katie Parker or Caitlin Parker
on Facebook is my birth name now I go by either,
but uh yeah, I mean yeah, if you follow the
journey on that, I'll always post up different things that
I'm doing and and whatnot. I don't know. Yeah, support,

(01:17:34):
I just guess, like just just I mean to worry about.
I mean, I love the support, but just get yourself
into getting the listeners, get active, just get out there
and and then do something if you if you want
to try a little boxing for fitness class, if you're
not you're not into the fighting, do that, like just
just you know, do it for yourselves as well. But
if you ever want to, you know, come to a

(01:17:55):
boxing session down in Mornington, Finincila Boxing.

Speaker 3 (01:17:58):
Gym with a champ bronze medalists with Australias.

Speaker 1 (01:18:04):
And the coach and my coach, Marcosamado. He was at
the Olympics. He's Olympic coach.

Speaker 3 (01:18:08):
So just say it, just saying get down there, guys,
get down there. Katie's also been doing a little bit
of speaking. So if anyone most amazingly inspiring woman standing
in their business or schools, reach out, Yes, thank.

Speaker 1 (01:18:28):
You, that's actually great. I probably should have said that myself,
but yeah, I love the opportunity to go to two
different places and share my journey and whatever messages you
want you to share, but I have lots of them,
I have lots of lessons.

Speaker 2 (01:18:41):
Better.

Speaker 1 (01:18:42):
No, yeah, you can reach out to me via Instagram, Facebook, whatever,
shoot me a message. I'd love to love talking obviously.

Speaker 2 (01:18:52):
You're amazing mate. Thank you so much.

Speaker 3 (01:18:54):
Thanks everyone, Fortuny and go give r a follow, reach
out and get sales in the boxing room quicks Mark.

Speaker 2 (01:19:03):
She said, it's now never.

Speaker 1 (01:19:06):
I got fighting in my blood. Gotta to bodcast, Gotta
true little gust, Gotta tu modocust, got it tru

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Blood, Sweat, and Olympic Glory | Caitlin Parker - 914

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Blood, Sweat, and Olympic Glory | Caitlin Parker - 914