Olympian Aoife O'Rourke feels 'privileged' to share boxing journey with sister
The Roscommon-born sisters are both elite boxers, flying the flag for Ireland on the global stage. Aoife, a two-time Olympian, expressed how honoured she feels to share this journey with her sibling.
Speaking to RSVP Live, Aoife said: "I can't think of too many athletes that are in a position where they have their sister on the exact same team and sharing the same goals - the Olympics was always the dream or in any sport, just to get to the top level.
"Having her there to travel with is amazing and to go through the motions with when you're competing - all the highs and lows that comes with it.
"It's not just competing, but there's the weekly training schedule too. It's an absolutely great job and I love being an athlete, but it's hard and it's not the easiest job in the world. It's a 24 hour job.
"Even though you might only be in training for that hour or two, it's everything outside of that that builds up to deciding if you're going to be a high performing athlete or not. It's what you do outside of that training session.
"Lisa really gets that as well. She has a really great head on her shoulders. To have her to bounce things off, I feel very, very privileged."
Before stepping into the ring, Aoife initially took up boxing to improve her fitness for playing Gaelic football at a local club.
She shared: "A boxing club had opened up in the town and it was only new. A few of the girls in school had gone to it and said how tough it was. They spoke about the fitness level required for it.
"I thought, 'Oh, it could be something that I could go and try to improve my fitness for Gaelic football'.
"I stuck at it then, but that was thanks to the coach I had. I might not have stuck at it if it was a different club, to be honest.
"Paddy Sharkey, my coach, just kept at it and he always gave me the time of day. He'd come down to the club at any hour.
"You could ring him anything you wanted and he'd give you extra training. Only for him, I wouldn't have stuck at it."
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