Wednesday 19 December 2012 14:45, UK
DOB: 2/6/86 Event: Lightweight boxing Club: St. Fergal's Boxing Club Flag: Ire
Before the 2012 Olympic Games, few people outside of boxing had heard the name Katie Taylor. However, after winning Ireland's first gold medal in London, the boxer was catapulted into the spotlight across the sporting world. Not only did the Lightweight double world champion boxer win Olympic gold this summer, it was also Ireland's first gold medal since 1996. Taylor, from Bray, Co. Wicklow, Ireland, had not even begun the sport by then. She started boxing in 1998, coming from a family with a boxing background. Her coach at the St. Fergal's Boxing Club in Bray is her father Peter, who was the 1986 Irish senior light heavyweight champion boxer and her mother is also a boxing referee. Taylor first made Irish boxing history, at age 15, on October 31, 2001 in the first officially sanctioned women's bout ever held in Ireland. She fought 16-year-old Alanna Audley of Belfast at the National Stadium in Dublin in the first of three female contests on a sixteen-bout amateur card. Taylor won over three 90-second rounds by 23-12. The popular boxer made Irish boxing history again at the age of 18 in May 2005, when she became the first Irish woman to win a gold medal at the Senior European Boxing Championships. Katie is an inspirational character and as well as being the Olympic, World Champion and five times European Champion, she has also captained the Irish female football team.
