Pete Taylor believes that his daughter Katie and the entire Ireland boxing team looked frail and overtrained at the Olympics in Rio.
The eight-strong Ireland team failed to feature on the podium at the Games, compared to London four years ago where Ireland brought home one gold, one silver and two bronze medals from a team of six boxers.
And Taylor, who was absent from his daughter’s corner for this Olympic Games admitted, speaking in today’s Irish Independent, that watching the fight from afar was a “nightmare”.
"I thought Katie looked frail compared to how she usually looks,” said Taylor.
"Every one of our boxers looked tired. They all looked overtrained. And everyone could see that the tactics were poor, you could see the tactics were absolutely terrible. No matter what the scoring is, boxing is boxing. You hit them, they don't hit you.
“I mean tactics won Katie the Olympic final in London, that's absolutely certain. But you can't control what the judges are doing, so you've just got to fight your own fight.”
Taylor was also critical of the Irish coaching team for not helping his daughter prepare properly for the Games as Zaur Antia, John Conlan and Eddie Bolger were all in Rio for a week, while Katie Taylor was back in Dublin ahead of the Games.
"No one stayed behind with Katie to help with the preparation. Would it have been that big a deal for one of the coaches to stay behind?
“The best team we've ever sent away to the Olympics and it's been a shambles.
"But it (the High Performance Unit) has been falling apart since London. The timing of Billy Walsh going left it in a mess."
