PARIS (Reuters) – Poland’s Mateusz Bereznicki and Julia Szeremeta have taken slightly winding routes on the road to becoming Olympic boxers but believe their experiences in other sports can help in the ring.
Heavyweight Bereznicki, 23, was enrolled in a hip-hop dance class by his mother as a child living in Gosport, England, which was where he met a coach from the Gosport Boxing Club at the age of 10.
“He (the coach) came to dancing practice because his daughter was there and he was picking her up,” Bereznicki told Reuters on Friday.
“He asked me there if I would rather do boxing, and I hated dancing because my mum made me do it, so I said ‘definitely’. That’s how it started pretty much.
“I do move on my feet a lot, so maybe (dancing has helped me become a better boxer), but what I can tell you for sure is that I definitely was not any good at dancing.”
Bereznicki will need his dancing shoes on if he hopes to avoid an early flight home from the Paris Olympics.
On Sunday, he will be up against European Games silver medallist Jack Marley of Ireland, who has beaten the Pole twice in the past two years.
“I boxed Marley before, and I lost against him, but I know I’m a different boxer now,” Bereznicki said.
“I’m definitely up for the fight. I’m looking forward to it, and I know it will be a tough fight, but I can win it, so I’m looking forward to it, 100 percent.”
Bereznicki’s compatriot Szeremeta swapped her karate belt for boxing gloves at the age of 14 because she was bored.
“I wanted to try something new,” Szeremeta told Reuters, speaking with the help of an interpreter.
“For a year I went here and there and tried some different things but I chose boxing because in this sport there are stronger punches than in karate.”
Szeremeta, who fights Venezuela’s Omailyn Alcala on Tuesday, employs a distinct style, keeping her hands low down by her side instead of the traditional high guard used by many boxers.
Asked if it was influenced by her years as a karateka, the 20-year-old featherweight said: “It could be, yeah. In karate, you normally don’t have your hands all the way up.
“I don’t feel as good when I have my hands high up, you know? This way I can feel comfortable, and I can punch harder and faster.”
(Reporting by Aadi Nair in Paris; Editing by Ken Ferris)
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