Kellie Harrington's special Roland Garros night is on Jack Marley’s mind as he dreams of LA Olympics glory.
Harrington made history by winning back to back gold medals in Tokyo and Paris and her gold medal fight in Roland Garros, the stately home of French tennis, has remained with him.
The 22-year-old remembers his fellow Dub singing 'Grace’ after her imperious display in her final. "It really was amazing," Marley smiled. "Everyone flew in for that. It was crazy.
"There were tricolours everywhere. Even Kellie singing afterwards and all the Irish supporters staying there for the celebrations, everyone else had gone and it was just us in Roland Garros.
"That was cool. I'd love to recreate that. That'd be good. Yeah, I have my heart set on LA."
Qualifying starts in the first quarter of 2027 and, while Aidan Walsh announce his retirement this week, Harrington will be along for the journey - or, at least, for part of it.
She retired from international competition after Paris but remained with the elite boxing unit in Abbotstown and recently announced her return, with the Nationals in January her first target.
"Yeah, it's great to have her with us," Marley said. "She's the captain, the one we all look up to, the one we all want to be and the one that sets the standard for us all.
"So, it's amazing to have her around. It's amazing to know that we'll have her around for I don't know how long. It's great that she announced she was staying.
"I think each individual is different and I don't think age is very defining in boxing. You can't really judge someone's longevity, how long someone's going to be in the sport. And I think that's what's great about the sport as well.
"Even watching her on the pads or watching her on the bag, she was never slowing down, she was only getting faster and faster. So yeah, it’s good."
'We won't moan about it. It's a privilege to be here on this top international stage at 21 years of age' - Jack Marley speaks after his quarter-final exit at the hands of Davlat Boltaev#RTESport #Paris2024
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Marley was the youngest member of Ireland's team in Paris but, after Harrington, the second-best performer as he lost out at the quarter-final stage to Asian champ Davlat Boltaev.
He preferred the journey to the Games rather than the destination itself. Qualifying a year early contributed to that feeling; that the competition was so condensed when the team got to the Arena Paris Nord compounded it.
But he treats his outcomes in the ring the same, so just missing out on a medal didn’t leave him distraught. Once training is over, so is talking about boxing unless he is back in Monkstown BC, helping out with the many kids drawn there to learn the ropes.
"When I leave work I don't talk about work, it keeps a good relationship between myself and boxing," Marley explained. "I feel that's how I still love the sport now as much as I did when I was 10."
He won his first All-Ireland title as an 11-year-old but it took Marley six years to reach the top of the mountain again and a series of disappointments forced him to take success and failure on the same terms.
"I finally got my second Irish title after that and I've been on a roll since," Marley said. "Those five years made me, not just as an athlete but as a person as well. You just have to learn how to do this. Those years made me comfortable with difficult situations."
It is why he was able to bounce back so soon after Paris and after the disappointment of losing his first World Boxing World Championship bout in August.
"I move on quickly enough," Marley said. "There are worse things in the world. You just have to take the good out of it, notice where you went wrong or what you could have done better.
"I try to see it in a positive way because what's the point in not doing that? I have it in my blueprints now so that I don't have to play out a certain mindset. It's just there already."
He certainly had buckets of perspective to draw on in Paris. His grandfather, Brendan, passed away on the eve of Marley’s first Olympic fight. Brendan had been in and out of hospital for some time and, when Marley briefly returned home from a final pre-Games camp in Germany, he was able to visit the man he later referred to as his best friend.
"I got to see him before I left," he said. "I had a few hours with him on my own. So that was nice, it was good."
Marley had told his girlfriend to let him know if anything happened while he was at the Games and so she told him the sad news. He had an hour to himself to absorb the news, then got his sweatsuit on and got the weight off for the next morning’s weigh-in ahead of beating Poland’s Mateusz Bereznicki.
He was Ireland’s second youngest heavyweight to compete at the Games after Cathal O’Grady in 1996. "Paris was a different kettle of fish, because of what happened outside the ring," he reflected.
"I did it to the best of my ability. There were times we had breaks and we'd have loved a few more fights before the Olympics, but there’s no point crying over spilled milk."
Over the last weekends he won his first two bouts since Liverpool, beating Indian opponents at the National Stadium. After a couple of club tournaments before the end of the year it will be time for the Nationals and, with the IABA’s move into the World Boxing ranks, 2026 will be a busy time.
There are plans in place for regular tournaments abroad and Marley is keen to travel.
"Once a month kind of thing, yeah…Mr. Worldwide," he grinned.
"We weren't miles behind everyone, but we were that bit behind because we missed out on so many tournaments.
"You can do as much training and sparring but you need to be at these tournaments, you need to be busy and you need to lose a few fights before the Worlds, if you get me, instead of just going there on the back of nothing. So, it’s good."
