Flower Power – Jack Marley smelling the Parisian roses
Jack Marley plans to complete a transition from delivering followers to smelling of roses in Paris.
Marley will become the first heavyweight to wear an Irish singlet at the Olympics since Cathal O’Grady in Atlanta 1996 when he climbs through the ropes at the 33rd edition of the Olympic Games.
It’s the realisation of a dream he had from when he first walked through the doors of Monkstwon Boxing Club as a seven-year-old – and the conclusion of a journey that intensified when he was welcomed into the High Performance in and around the 2020 Games.
It’s also a dream that was partly funded by some flower power.
For the first two years of his High-Performance stint, Marley, who now has much welcomed Chadwick’s sponsorship, had very little funding and had to work to fund his training.
“I did flower deliveries on the weekend,” the 21-year-old explained.
“Just bating around on the weekend. I tried to sign on to the dole for a while but they threw me off that quickly enough”
“I didn’t know any different. I was just going straight out of school.”
Marley began to make a name for himself with a European U22 medal win in 2022.
That victory put the Dub’s name on the lips of the wider fight fraternity and ensured people were talking about him as a future Olympian.
However, even before that impressive display, he had impressed the Irish setup enough to get called into the High Performance where he got to train alongside one of his heroes Kellie Harrington and talented boxers he has since made Olympic teammates.
It was massive for the 18-year-old, although even at that young age the multi-time Irish champion had the confidence to back himself
“It was four weeks before the Leaving Cert and I got invited in off Bernard [Dunne], to potentially go to my first Under-22 Europeans and I just said, ‘F* it, why not?’
“I took predicted grades so I still have my Leaving Cert and I still can come in here, which was the dream, coming in here. I didn’t want to go to college or to pursue anything else.
“I wanted to box full time. I wanted it to be my job and here I am now.
“I took that leap and I have been in here ever since.”
The European U22 gold medal winner qualified for the Games by winning a European Games medal last summer.
It meant unlike many of his Parisian teammates he had a year to think about his Parisian possibilities and it also afforded him to celebrate.
“I’m not going to lie to you. I celebrated, I celebrated very hard.
“Not as hard as I train but I celebrated. I took the summer off and enjoyed myself.
“It is all about balance,” he added.
Marley, whose focus is back on the job, is aware there is a degree of hype surrounding him going into the games, but certainly isn’t buying into it.
“Everyone has their own opinion and their own sense of hope going into the Games.
“It adds that bit of Irish sense into it. I’m happy everyone has their own things.
“It’s not like I’m going to be meeting everyone and they’re going to be telling me what they’re thinking. I know what I’m going to do. That’s all I am working on.”
