This article is from page 6 of the 2012-08-14 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 6 JPG
KATIE Taylor’s historic Olympic triumph came as no surprise to one former teammate of the Bray boxer.
Ennis woman Edel Malone wore the green jersey alongside Katie on Irish soccer team from under 17 right up to senior level.
Having observed up close the dedication of Ireland’s newest Olympic champion, Edel says Katie is the perfect role model for any young sportsperson.
She continues, “When you speak with her, she’s the most humble person and she has this gentle spirit about her but when she gets onto the pitch and into the ring, the fire inside her, her passion for that sport, comes out. Her training was always number one. Any athlete should use Katie as a role model, for her attitude, work ethic and natural ability. Just look at how far it has taken her.”
Apart from their Ireland days, Edel and Katie also crossed paths on the club scene, most famously in 1998 when Clare took on Wicklow in the prestigious Kennedy Cup.
Edel recalls, “We probably know each other since we were 12. She played with Lourdes Celtic and I was with Lifford. We would’ve played against each other in All-Ireland competitions. If there was someone you had to really mark on the other team, that was Katie. Then we played in the Kennedy Cup. It’s traditionally a boys’ competition but that year there were three girls in the whole tournament. She was with Wicklow and I was with Clare. The two of us made it to one of the finals so we got to play against each other.”
A Clare team, managed by John O’Neill and Vinny McDermott, claimed a narrow 1-0 victory.
Now living in New York where she has just completed a Masters in Documentary Studies and Production, Edel had to rely on updates from her mother and friends to follow Katie’s nerve-shredding quest for gold.
She thinks that having fulfilled a life-long ambition, her former teammate could hang up the boxing gloves for a return to soccer.
Edel, who is currently nursing a knee injury, says, “It will be interesting to see if she returns to football. She could do that. She’s achieved everything in boxing. If it wasn’t a boxing tournament she was preparing for, she was getting ready for a soccer match. I think she could very well go back to playing soccer also.
“You can only imagine the amount of pressure she was under. One of our other friends who plays soccer and is quite close with her, she texted a few days ago saying she had met Katie after she’d won gold. She said that Katie was over the moon and that she was so relieved,” she adds.
Selina Moylan and Susan McNamara are two Clare women who also played with Katie Taylor on Irish soccer teams.