Lisa O’Rourke confirms that her Paris Olympics dream is over

Lisa O’Rourke has confirmed that her hopes of qualifying for this summer’s Olympic Games in Paris are over.

When contacted by the Roscommon Herald this evening, the 2022 world boxing champion clarified that reports suggesting that she wouldn’t be involved in the final Olympic boxing qualifiers in Thailand were true, although she didn’t want to comment further on the matter.

Since winning her world title two years ago, O’Rourke has been plagued by injury. Following Gráinne Walsh’s controversial exit from the recent Olympics qualifiers in Italy, however, there was an expectation that O’Rourke and Amy Broadhurst, who also won a world title in 2022, would be given the opportunity to try and qualify for Paris in the welterweight division.

However, reports emerged in the last 24 hours that the IABA’s High Performance Unit decided not to conduct an assessment between Walsh, O’Rourke and Gráinne Walsh to decide who would represent Ireland in the welterweight division at the final qualification Olympic tournament in Bangkok in late May.

It is understood that Walsh will now be given a second opportunity at the final Olympics qualifiers following the much-talked about judging decisions that denied her last time out.

O’Rourke’s older sister, Aoife, has already stamped her passport to the Paris Olympics by reaching the final of the European Games last July, a tournament she subsequently went on to win.