Sisters in Arms: Lisa and Aoife O’Rourke Ready for World Championship Challenge
When Lisa O’Rourke steps into the ring at the World Boxing Championships in Liverpool next month, she won’t just be representing Ireland – she’ll be sharing the journey with her older sister Aoife O’Rourke.
The Roscommon siblings, both now mainstays of the Irish High-Performance team, have travelled a unique road into boxing together. O’Rourke admits neither of them had family ties to the sport, but once her older sister tried it, she soon dragged her younger sister along too.
“Boxing is not in the family at all. Aoife was the first one who went with all her friends through school, mostly for the fitness alongside football, and I thought she was mad. Everyone at home thought she was mad doing it. We were like ‘no, it’s not for you’. Then she did it for a year and was like ‘come with me, come with me’ and eventually I did – and the two of us haven’t looked back since. She was right all along and we love it now,” Lisa told Irish-boxing.com.
Now, the decorated pair will compete side by side at the first ever World Championships where the men’s and women’s tournaments are combined. The Roscommon footballer believes the shared experience will make this edition even more meaningful.
“For us in Ireland, we train together so we all get on as a team, which is great. To go and be there for each other and support each other through the competition we’re all training for is going to be special this time around, I think.”
O’Rourke, a world champion herself, is also buoyed by how preparations have gone heading into Liverpool. She says Ireland’s final training camp has provided the perfect tune-up.
“Preparation’s going good and everyone’s been working really hard and leaving no stone unturned. Having this camp a few days out to sharpen up the tools and get all that international sparring in before the competition is really, really good.”
Another bonus for the 22-year-old, who won silver with her sister at World level before, is the tournament’s location, just across the Irish Sea. While she won’t pressure family and friends to travel, she admits the thought of hearing familiar voices from the stands adds to her excitement.
“I definitely won’t put any pressure on anyone to come out, but it’ll be an extra bonus to hear some familiar voices in the crowd. If they come, great. But if not, they’re always there supporting me whether they’re near or far – so we’ll be grateful either way.”
For Lisa, sharing the world stage with Aoife once again underlines just how far both sisters have come since those first tentative steps into a Roscommon boxing gym. In Liverpool, they’ll look to make more history together.
