THE anger at pushing the womenโs World championships months back into 2022, at short notice, is understandable. The announcement was made only four weeks in advance, not long when flights have been booked, plans made, training camps set and more for international teams across the world.
โItโs very frustrating,โ Australiaโs Skye Nicolson told Boxing News. โI qualified for the Olympics in March 2020, I didnโt box until I was at the Olympics in Tokyo 18 months later, while the rest of the world had still been competing in boxing.
โSo when the Worlds was confirmed I was so excited because I need to get back to normal, I need to be boxing regularly. I just want to be active. I didnโt even really have that much of a break after the Olympics.
โFor them to be cancelled four weeks out is very frustrating. We had just flown to the other side of the world to finish our preparations and literally within two days of being here [in Sheffield], we read that they were cancelled or postponed.โ
โIt was very frustrating that the menโs Worlds went ahead, they were fine, the womenโs Worlds have been postponed because of Covid,โ she noted. โIf youโre a male boxer apparently Covidโs not a problem but it is if youโre a female. It is frustrating but I just want to make the most of being over here. Get in as much work as I can, get international sparring in. Iโm not going to dwell on it.โ
Nicolson originally was going to focus solely on the amateur sport. But now she is looking at balancing pursuing the Olympic sport with the early stages of a professional career. โThe Olympic gold medal has been my dream forever,โ said Nicolson, who lost to Kariss Artingstall in the quarter-finals of the Games in Japan. โI felt like post-Tokyo, I know it sounds cheesy but I didnโt come this far to only go this far. I feel like I would regret it forever if I went straight over to the pro scene leaving amateurs and never truly know if I could have won that Olympic gold medal. Especially with it being a shorter cycle, 2021 to 2024.
โI had a conversation with our national coach and they were very supportive of the idea of just boxing in benchmark events. So Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games and World championships, making money and building my pro career rather than pushing that out for another three years.
โI donโt see me not wanting to go to the Paris Olympics. I think thatโs a given.โ
Sheโs signed with STN Sports, the management agency, and as for a promoter sheโs weighing her options. โThereโs been some interest over here in the UK but thereโs also really good offers coming from Australia as well,โ she said. โTo be able to do both is pretty exciting.โ
For the Australian Olympic team the rule change helps them retain some of their best athletes. โProfessional tennis players, professional basketball players, professional golfers, theyโre all in the Olympics. Theyโre all on the pro scene away from the Olympics, why is it any different?โ Nicolson asks. โ[Boxing Australia] are still going to support me because they know Iโm their best medal chance but they know they canโt keep me and not let me go pro because theyโre not giving me money.โ
โThe Australian amateur boxers get s**t all,โ she adds. โOur best prospects turn over to the pros because thereโs just no support in the amateur system and then we donโt get the medals so we donโt get the funding and the cycle keeps going and going.โ
Skye has a unique motivation for her boxing career. She is following in the footsteps of a brother, Jamie, who died the year before she was born. โItโs always been an inspiration and motivation for me, especially when I started boxing. Being told that I boxed just like him,โ she explains.
โItโs crazy to think what he did by the time he was 22. Because Iโm 26 now,โ she continued. โHe went to the menโs World championships at 17 years old, winning Australiaโs first medal, Commonwealth Games bronze medalโฆ To go to the Olympics as well, all before 22, at the same time graduated from uni and was working as a school teacher, itโs just like how did you do that?
โBoxing kind of gave us this brother-sister relationship even though we never met. I definitely feel comfort knowing I walked the same path he already walked. I definitely feel like heโs with me on this journey and he left this legacy and Iโm following it and making my own as well. Itโs pretty cool.โ