Aidan Walsh

I wanted to win and she wanted to win.

And then at certain times as well, I started to want her to win more than I wanted to win.

I used to go to competitions and be like, as long as she wins, I don't care about myself, just you get the win.

Then she was saying the same for me, just you get the win.

And it was sort of like that the whole way through.

But as mad as it sounds, it's funny because I find it hard to deal with pressure.

I know it sounds strange, but going through my career, I always had pressure on me.

Because Michaela was always a few years ahead of me in sports, so she was always winning national titles first, European medals first, world medals first.

She qualified a few fights before me for the first Olympics.

And so things like that, I was always under pressure, but I actually think that helped me perform because I was under pressure.

It gives you that wee edge too, but then over time, then it just burnt me out.

It stung me in the long run, like...

yeah so what you what you're getting then from boxing at like 11 12 years of age you're getting this respect and kind of protection yeah you think then you're paying for it mentally are you feeling the pressure from that age or does that come on later no from that age as well because when you think of it you're brought in the environment and i was sort of good at it in a sense that doesn't know you sort of had a wee bit of talent and a wee bit of so automatically like you start winning

and sometimes at a young age when you're winning you're on that conveyor belt of like okay you have to go to the next ones or you have to go to the next there's always that conveyor belt of you want more people expect me to go on and oh you're going to go to the olympics one day kid or which is great at the time but sometimes when a lot of pressure for me again when pressure's on it's sort of like whoa i want to enjoy my life when i was younger because i got in there at such young age and

I didn't really have much time, to go out and play with friends, or go to parties, which is a good thing also as well, like, there's nothing wrong with that, but, looking back now, I missed out a lot of things, that I wish I had of experience, one being education, like, maybe yourself in sport, like,

You're going to school, I'm going to be a boxer, I'm going to go to the line, I don't need education.

Then I'm going to the Olympics and I'm like, right, if I retire hereafter, I have no education.

So, you know, there's loads of things you miss out and there's loads of things that you prioritise over things that you should be prioritising.

And I think you have to experience that yourself.

You know yourself, when someone's telling you you need to go to school, you're not listening.