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19th August 2025
04:15pm BST
Double Olympic Champion Kellie Harrington could make a return to the ring. The 35-year-old seemed to have hung up her gloves after securing her second gold medal at the Paris Olympics last year, but IABA performance director Jon Mackey explained that Harrington is still involved in the high-performance unit even though she is not travelling as part of the team that is travelling to the World Championships in Liverpool next month.
Harrington successfully defended her lightweight gold medal that she won for the first time at the Tokyo Olympics. The Dubliner continues to train at the high-performance unit (HPU) at the Sport Ireland Campus in Blanchardstown.
Ireland has 17 boxers competing at the upcoming World Championships, which commence on September 4th. The team consists of 10 male boxers and seven female boxers.
Irish Performance Director Mackey stated that Harrington’s future is still uncertain.
He explained: “Look, I don’t want to raise any speculation on Kellie’s future.
“She has publicly declared that she may not box again. But whether she does or not is to be seen. But I look forward to having that conversation with her.
“She is still in the system. She hasn’t officially retired, and she is training away on an individually tailored programme. She is still very much a part of what we do in the high-performance unit.
“The long-term plans for Kellie? We haven’t spoken about that just yet and we may do towards the end of the year once we get the World Championships out of the way.”
The next Olympics is in Los Angeles in 2028, when Harrington will be 38 years old. Harrington is one of only three female boxers to retain their gold medal alongside Nicola Adams and combat sports superstar Clarissa Shields. It remains to be seen whether or not we will see her defend her title in three years’ time.
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