“There are no more mountains, that’s it.”
With her second Olympic gold medal around her neck, Kellie Harrington pulled the curtain on her boxing career – and she did it in some style.
The 34-year-old ends her career as a two-time Olympic champion and a world and European champion.
She will go down as not only one of Ireland’s greatest Olympians, but in their entire sporting history.
With her Paris gold to back up her Tokyo success three years ago, Harrington has joined an exclusive club with Nicola Adams and Clarissa Shields as the only women to retain their Olympic boxing titles.
The Dubliner’s victory also claimed a seventh medal of the Games – four gold and three bronze – for Ireland, making the 2024 Olympics their most successful in Ireland’s history.
It was fitting that Harrington should be the one to achieve that feat. Along with Pat O’Callaghan, in 1928 and 1932, and rowers Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy, she becomes only the third Irish athlete to retain their Olympic gold medals.
In 100 years of Olympic competition, that is where the list ends.
At Roland Garros, the home of French tennis that had been transformed into a boxing arena for Olympic finals, it was more akin to Dublin than Paris.
Before Harrington and Wenlu Yang of China had even entered Court Philippe-Chatrier, you could sense there was something special brewing.
Two fights earlier, Algeria’s Imane Khelif, who put aside noise surrounding her eligibility, guaranteed herself a medal and the atmosphere was electric.
But it was about to be dialled up to 11.
Zombie by the Cranberries blared out just before Harrington entered to a sea of colour and noise.
She was cool and methodical as she strode towards the ring. It was the walk of a champion.
Fifteen minutes later, her calm exterior was shattered as the result was drowned out by a crescendo of noise from the Irish support.
While those in the stands celebrated, Harrington fell to her knees before jumping into the arms of her coaching team and then dancing around the ring.
There was even singing ringside as the Irish party was shaping up to go on well into the Parisian night.
It was an outpouring of joy and elation. Both in the stands and the ring, it was pure pandemonium.
“It was amazing. I said to the coaches after: ‘Is there anything I won’t do?'” Harrington said.
“It was brilliant. The Irish are just great. I never expected anything like that. This is something I’m never going to forget, ever.”
‘It’s time for my life chapter’
More emotion came as she prepared to stand on the top step. The tears continued even after the medal was around her neck, struggling to sing Amhran na bhFiann as her lip shook.
In Tokyo, she dedicated her medal to “everyone in our lovely little land” as the world was still coming to grips with life post-Covid.
But in Paris, Harrington was “doing it for me and me alone”.
The initial plan was to retire after Tokyo but the shortened three-year gap between Games encouraged her to go on.
“But then it was, ‘sure, it’s only an extra three years’.”
On one side of Court Philippe-Chatrier an inscription reads: “Le victoire appartient au plus opiniatre.”
The translation in English on the other side reads: “Victory belongs to the most tenacious.”
They certainly don’t come any more tenacious than Harrington – and now she has made history.
“It’s been three years of madness. It’s been hard, so I decided it was for me and I was doing it for me and me alone.
“I’m so happy and I’m so proud of myself to be here and to be doing what I’m doing.
“When you reach a mountain, you find another mountain and that’s what I’ve done.
“It wasn’t easy to climb that mountain.”
And that explains why, in the context of her future in the ring, there are no more mountains to climb.
Harrington says she won’t step away from boxing entirely.
While a coaching role doesn’t appeal as she wants to focus on “my life chapter” with her wife, Mandy, she wants to try and help the sport that has given her so much.
“I am done now. The next chapter is going to be my life chapter. It’s for me and Mandy now.
“I can’t wait to just live my life. To not be looking at the scales every morning. When it’s crazy, and all boxers will say the same, to train the way we want to train.
“It’s like, we can’t do that because we can’t get injured, or you can’t do that because you will be tired tomorrow and then you won’t have anything to be able to spar.
“I want to be able to do whatever type of training I want to do.
“It’s the stuff of dreams. It’s just mad, it’s crazy. Nicola Adams, Clarissa Shields – and Kellie Harrington. To be up there with them is just amazing.”
Source Agencies
