On August 2, 2014 Aidan Walsh was on a train in Glasgow bound for the SSE Hydro Arena to watch his sister Michaela box in the Commonwealth Games flyweight final against Olympic champion Nicola Adams.
was taking the same journey. The pair of us got talking and Aidan, then just 17, was telling me about his desire to follow in Michaela’s footsteps and compete at the Commonwealth Games and one day go to the Olympics.
There was no arrogance or cockiness to the teenager. This was just a warm hearted, genuine, polite kid with a dream.
Eight years on we are chatting again and Aidan hasn’t changed. He’s still a class act who joyfully made his dreams come true.
Now there are new ambitions for the 25-year-old from Belfast to fulfil starting this year in Birmingham at the 2022 Commonwealth Games with the intention to add gold to the silver he won for Northern Ireland in Australia four years ago.
Having reaching the final on the Gold Coast, Walsh went on to deliver bronze for Ireland in the welterweight division at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, held last year due to Covid-19.
Unfortunately he fractured his ankle celebrating his quarter-final success and had to withdraw from an eagerly awaited semi battle with Team GB’s Pat McCormack who had beaten him in the Commonwealth decider.
It’s been quite a ride already with his proud family there for him all the way.
He talks in glowing terms about the unwavering support of his girlfriend Courtney, mum Martine and dad Damien, who first took him to the St Agnes Boxing Club on the Andersontown Road at nine years of age.
Walsh appreciates the love and guidance they have given them adding that without their financial backing when he was on the dole as a teenager he may have had to quit the ring.
Typical of the person he is Walsh is keen to pay credit to a host of others who have helped him, listing boxing coaches like Sean Canavan and businessman Tony Clarke, a sponsor in the early days.
Then there’s sister Michaela, double Commonwealth Games silver medalist, Olympian and best of all an inspiration to her younger brother.
Reflecting on Glasgow 2014 when travelling to cheer on his sibling, Aidan says: “Speaking to you back then on the train on the way to watch Michaela I was determined to be an Olympian and compete in the Commonwealth Games because I had Michaela as a role model.
“She was always achieving these great things and I was always following her and supporting her.
“At the same time Michaela was telling people ‘Aidan is going to do this and that’. She believed in me and to do what she said and what I hoped for is amazing.
“I was only a young kid in 2014 and I was lucky enough to see it all in front of me and what it was like at that level.
“When Michaela was 13 or 14 and I was 11 and 12 my dad was bringing me to Dublin to see the national team and we watched them train. To have a taste of that kept the vision alive for me.
“Since then I’ve competed in the Commonwealth Games and Olympics. I am still young and want to keep going and achieve more but sometimes it is good to sit back and think how far you have come already.”
Last year in Tokyo, the dynamic Walsh duo created history becoming the first brother and sister to compete in the same boxing tournament at the Olympics.
“For our family to have two Olympians from one house was absolutely incredible. The whole experience was amazing,” says Aidan, who pays tribute to the Games preparation set out for the Irish team by former World Champion Bernard Dunne who recently departed his role as Irish Athletic Boxing Association (IABA) High Performance director.
“Of course I would love to have gone on and done more in Tokyo but to be with my sister and our fantastic team and win bronze was something I felt privileged to be part of.
“Looking ahead to the next Olympics in Paris 2024 I want to see if I can push on and achieve more.”
For now Walsh’s focus is on the Commonwealth Games in the summer. He has opted out of competing in the upcoming European Championships to make Birmingham his number one goal this year hoping to finish on the top step of the podium as Paddy Barnes and Michael Conlan did in Scotland eight years ago.
“I was there watching it and to see them do it and the emotions, energy and positivity that came from that was wonderful,” he says with an engaging enthusiasm.
“Michael and Paddy paved the way for all the young ones coming through now because they were our last boxers to win gold medals at the Commonwealth Games and they won medals at the Olympics.
“To see Paddy and Michael win gold medals shows it is possible. Other countries will be looking at us and thinking we are big rivals because they know how good we are as a team.
“It is going to be fantastic. Our coaches are excellent and there is a great atmosphere around the team.
I’m really looking forward to it and the camp being based in Belfast. There will be top sparring and preparation and with the Commonwealth Games being just across the water our families will be able to come over and roar us on so there are lots of positives.”
So too was the news this week that Walsh was among 125 young athletes to receive sporting bursaries worth over £70,000 from sporting enterprise GLL at an awards gala in the City Hall.
Walsh is grateful to the GLL Sports Foundation, the largest independent athlete support programme in the UK, for their continued support, saying: “This is massively important. Before I was even on the national team I got the GLL Sports Award and it was amazing.
“You got into all the local leisure centres for free and had use of swimming pools, fitness gyms and the halls they have for different sports.
“I was never able to afford a gym membership so to have that and funding to tick over was incredible.
“To be using top of the range high performance gyms was huge for me.
“I’m so pleased to be among the group of amazing young athletes honoured by the 2022 GLL Sports Foundation Awards.”
A fine ambassador for boxing, Walsh is also fun, open, down to earth and honest.
Out of the ring he enjoys fishing, kayaking and enjoying a Chinese in his caravan.
He puts a smile on your face explaining his daily routines when in training and not.
“If I have training like a day in Dublin would be getting up, have your breakfast, go back to bed, train at 11 o’clock, get your lunch, go back to bed, train at 4 o’clock, get your dinner and then go back to bed and sleep. You would do that every day. It’s just training and bed,” he says.
“When I’m off I would go fishing with my mate Brendan or go kayaking, walk the dog, go cycling and then at the weekend I go to my caravan with my girlfriend and the first thing I do when I get there is get a Chinese and a tin of coke out of the Dragon Sun Chinese in Carnlough.
“Before the Olympics I was training all week and then coming home I was out on my kayak and fishing and I was doing too much so they actually pulled me and said ‘listen Aidan coming up the Olympics we want you to chill out over the weekend so you are not out on your kayak or your boat or fishing or walking the dog because you are doing too much’.
“Lo and behold I was. I was training hard all week then putting too much energy into other activities.
“Approaching the Olympics in Tokyo I put it on hold. After that I was back fishing and out on my boat and living the good life. I’m in full time training at the moment so that’s all knocked on the head for now.
“My priority is the Commonwealth Games. I want to go there and do my family proud.”
You can be sure he will.
