Paris 2024: Jude Gallagher on Olympic boxing dreams

The Olympics had long been the goal for Gallagher, and the sheer joy and emotion on his face after he qualified in March said everything you needed to know. Now 22, it had been 12 years in the making.

Gallagher’s first Olympic memories took place that summer of 2012 in what was a golden period for Irish boxing.

Katie Taylor won a historic gold for Ireland and went on to international fame after turning professional.

Michael Conlan and Paddy Barnes collected bronze medals, while John Joe Nevin won silver.

Gallagher was in a summer scheme in his school in the rural heart of Tyrone when his teacher asked if he wanted to watch his heroes in action.

“I was meant to be out in the yard playing football, and my teacher said ‘such and such is fighting for Ireland today, do you want to come and watch it?’.

“That’s my earliest memories of Olympic boxing. That’s where the dream started for me.”

Now, instead of watching his heroes, Gallagher – from the village of Newtownstewart with a population of just 1,500 – will be competing on the very same stage.

He says it’s something that “hasn’t sunk in” but is “unbelievable”.

“I hadn’t thought about that,” Gallagher said, when asked what it was like to have youngsters look up to him and watch him on TV, just as he had done in 2012.

“I don’t see myself as a superstar as I would have seen those guys as superstars back then.

“I’m just Jude. I’m an ordinary lad doing my thing. If it inspires one person or it inspires 10, it’s brilliant.

“That’s what it is all about, inspiring the next generation like I was inspired myself.”