THE incomparable cruelty of the Olympic Games was laid bare in its usual brutal fashion at the North Paris Arena on Sunday afternoon.
Not because Grainne Walsh lost to Anna Luca Homori in a shocking body blow for the Irish team. Not even because the referee was overly lenient as, time and again, Homori held and spoiled the Offaly woman’s attacks.
Aidan Walsh has been doing similar for years, by his own admission earlier in the day, though the Hungarian took it to new levels.
It’s just the blink-and-you-miss-it nature of it all; a decade-long dream over after nine minutes.
For 10 years the Offaly woman has worked towards this crowning moment in her career, campaigning at 69 kilos before dropping down to 66 when the Olympic weights shifted.
In the time between, however, Walsh went through hell. A series of thumb injuries, requiring three operations, saw her box just three times between 2020 and ‘23 – ending any hopes of reaching the Tokyo Olympics and, ultimately, leaving her on the brink of hanging up the gloves after being advised that one punch could finish her for good.
Yet her comeback story was Rocky stuff at times.
First she returned to defeat Amy Broadhurst in an Irish elite final; the same Amy Broadhurst who had swept the boards in the 12 months previous, and the same Amy Broadhurst who – despite that defeat – would be handed the first crack at Olympic qualification that summer.
This body blow was compounded by the departure of club and international coach Dmitry Dmitruk to a new role with India, until Broadhurst’s defeat handed Walsh a lifeline.
From there she didn’t look back, overcoming the heartache of a hugely controversial World qualifier defeat in Milan – when a place from Paris looked assured – to tear through the field in Bangkok; an Olympian at last.
Yet, while Rocky always had a happy ending, this one certainly didn’t.
Trying to force the pace from early, Walsh struggled to find her range as Homori settled into a rhythm first, the Hungarian equally determined to ensure the 29-year-old couldn’t do any damage on the inside.
The first went to Homori and, despite receiving an official warning for holding, so did the second. There was now a sense of panic in Walsh’s work as she was too often tagged stepping in, Homori’s occasional showboating pouring petrol on a raging inferno.
In the third, Homori toured the ropes with the finishing line in sight, using her long levers to tie Walsh up any time she felt breath on her brow.
That’s why the tears that flowed when she made her way to the mixed zone weren’t for the crushing end to an unforgettable journey, not yet anyway, immediate anger owing more to the maddening way the fight played out.
“Um, yeah, it’s hard to put it into words… the bottom line of all of this is just frustration.
“She just smothered me from early on and was just leaning all over me. There’s a million things running through my head right now, but yeah, I’m just very frustrated.
“Like, obviously I’m bitterly disappointed. I just feel like I didn’t get into a flow at all. I’m a fighter that relies very much on getting into my flow and just using my reflexes and stuff.
“I didn’t feel like I could get any of that – any time I got close she was leaning on me, I was trying to set my hands free. But it takes two to tango, I’m not blaming her for it.”
Instead, Walsh felt she deserved more protection from the referee as, even after that official warning, Homori continued to lean on Walsh and drag her down when in close.
“I was glad that he did penalise her for it but, when you’ve been penalised, she should have maybe been like, ‘oh God, I don’t want to get another warning’. But, actually, she didn’t step back at all.
“I do feel like he could have warned her more because it didn’t stop her; it actually encouraged her to continue doing it and I was getting continuously frustrated, but I tried not to let my emotions get the better of me.
“It’s just very annoying when you’re trusting someone to let a fight go and it doesn’t turn out that way.”
Once that emotion subsides, however, Walsh will appreciate the magnitude of the against-the-odds achievement that brought her hear. Those thoughts, though, are hard to stomach in the wake of such a gut-wrenching end.
“I’m just disappointed that the Olympics comes around once every four years and yeah… it’s a shame this is how it turned out, but I’m very proud of myself for getting this far.
“Nothing takes away from how difficult it has been to get me to this position, and the people that have helped me along the way and who stood by me, because there’s an awful lot of people that come and go. “I’m just disappointed I didn’t show the best version of Grainne Walsh. I can beat that girl, you know, 10 times out of 10 - but it just didn’t didn’t happen today.”
RUNNING ORDER
Sunday, July 28
92kg last 16: J Marley v M Bereznicki (Poland) – 7.32pm
Monday, July 29
60kg last 16: K Harrington v A Mesiano (Italy) – 1.46pm
Tuesday, July 30
54kg last 16: J Lehane v Y Chang (China) – 10.36am
Wednesday, July 31
57kg last 32: J Gallagher v C Paalam (Phillipines) – 1.30pm
75kg last 16: A O’Rourke v E Wojcik (Poland) – 7.52pm
Thursday, August 1
51kg last 16: D Moorehouse v W Lkhadiri (France) – 6pm
Friday, August 2
57kg last 16: M Walsh v SK Staneva (Bulgaria) – 1.46pm
