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Andy Lee
Olympic boxer Andy Lee became a national hero when he qualified for last year’s games in Athens. He went out in a heartbreaker of a quarterfinal, drawing 27-27 with Cameroon's Hassan Ndam Njikam, then losing out on a countback. The middleweight Limerick athlete has kept his amateur status and is currently one of our best hopes for a medal at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. And it all started with some evening training sessions...How did you get into boxing?
My older brothers, one six years older than me, one two years older than him, were both into boxing, so I followed them into it. We lived in London at the time, near a great club called the Repton Boxing Club. It had about five or six coaches, one for each group of lads.
I was going to the gym since I could walk but I started proper training when I was eight. They started us off with basic training, because it’s very important to learn the proper techniques from a young age.
At the start, it was just two nights a week but by the time I was twelve or thirteen I was in the gym practically every day – all the time.
When did you suspect you had a real talent for this?
I was always the top lad in competitions and I won a lot of national titles from an early age. You need a lot of luck as well. I know a lot of lads who started out with me and they’re not doing it now.
What’s your training regime like?
I’m training at the National Stadium at the moment, six days a week, four hours a day. On one morning, we’ll have a weight session from 11 o’clock – each of the lads are on different weights – and the next day we’ll do running in the morning. Then we’ll rest and at 5 o’clock start boxing training – sparring and using the bags.
The sponsorship from the Sports Council is a big help. It’s not a fortune, but it helps us survive doing something we love.
What are your plans for a career after boxing?
I would definitely think about going into further education. Boxing’s not going to last forever, I need to carve out a career for myself. I would consider coaching, but as there is only one national coach, I’m not sure if I could make a career out of it. But coaching is definitely something I’d be interested in staying with. It’s about giving something back and I’d like to maybe help out around Castlecomer, where I live.
