'The crowd chanting, the music, the lights, it was just incredible'

IT was one of those moments that remain etched, indelibly so, in Jenny Lehane's memory; filed away under 'unforgettable.'

The moment she walked out of her dressingroom in the Arena Paris Nord in the Villepinte Exhibition Centre in the Seine-Saint-Denis district. Almost everything about made a series of 'wow' moments. The atmosphere, the crowd roaring, that breath-catching shout from her supporters, the wave of emotion, the crescendo of noise.

'Jenny, Jenny, Jenny,' her fans roared out as they waved their tricolours.

"I could hear the crowd chanting, the music, the lights, it was just incredible. I did take a moment in the ring when I got a chance to just stop and take a look around and appreciate the supporters, all my family. That moment of walking out into the arena was definitely the most memorable of the whole trip."

The 'trip' was, of course the Paris Olympics. Some years ago Lehane (who is 26) set herself the objective of qualifying for the biggest sporting extravaganza in the world. It's seemed an outlandish ambition. Way off line. She was an accomplished practitioner of taekwando, the martial art that demands great discipline and focus - but boxing?

She boxed out of the DCU club. She got to like the sport, love it even, all the time working as a teacher in St Mary's National School in Ashbourne. She had a dream of boxing in the Olympics. Unlike most people who are content to just dream Lehane took things several steps further.

So she gave up her job, relied on whatever backing she could muster and ploughed on.

Fiercely determined she went through the arduous, precarious process of qualifying for the Olympics in the 56kg (bantamweight) division and earned the coveted her place in a qualifying tournament in Bangkok in June. She had made it.

She was unlucky in Paris when she was drawn to take on Yuan Chang, a former Asian Champion; an accomplished, polished, classy opponent who went on to win the gold. Lehane might have lost to the Chinese but she gained so many golden memories including that moment when she stepped out of her dressingroom and take on her opponent.

"I felt really great walking out and to be honest even though the result didn't go my way I enjoyed every minute of it. I never thought I would box in front of so many people before in my life. It was an incredible feeling to walk out before such a crowd. I felt good. I felt strong."

BACK TO SCHOOL

Just two weeks after the adrenalin-rush of the Olympics Lehane was back in an environment she is very familiar with - the classroom in St Mary's.

When the Meath Chronicle called her she had just completed her second day back of the new school term. She was still buzzing from her Olympic experience and invariably the youngsters had questions to ask her about those, idyllic Paris days.

"Oh God the students were brilliant. They were all telling me 'oh we were watching you on TV and we were all watching online,' they were all watching from somewhere on holidays. They were saying I was watching you from Greece or from Portugal so that was really, really cool. I was on yard duty so it was cool to chat to the different kids from all the different classes."

As is their way the young students asked searching, probing, relevant questions. "They had seen stuff online about the controversial beds the athletes slept on, they asked really, really good questions, the kind of things kids are more interested in.

"The beds were made of cardboard, they were introduced in Tokyo to make the Olympics more green and environmentally-friendly, they didn't have to provide loads of beds and dispense with them afterwards, they are all made of recycled material. It was all about keeping green and they were very comfortable."

The youngsters were also interested in the phones each member of Team Ireland were presented with - and Miss Lehane had reason to be thankful for the device she received.

"Samsung were the main sponsors for the Olympics and every Olympian received a phone, it was good we did get one because as part of the opening ceremony we were out on the little boats that sailed down the Seine. That day it properly lashed rain and we all got drenched. My own phone became unusable because it was so waterlogged so the Olympic phone certainly came in handy."

THE ROCKY ROAD

Even in the process of qualifying for Paris, Lehane had came up against enough setbacks to discourage all but the most committed. For starters, she discovered to road to the French capital was filled with a lot more potholes than she had originally imagined.

"The qualification process for boxing in the Olympics this time around was tough. Before I did boxing I just thought the number one person in the country in their division goes to the Games, but it's not as easy as that. The first qualifying tournament contains the best boxers in Europe and there are only a few slots available."

There were other setbacks along the way that could have made her feel she wasn't going to make it but she kept the faith. She kept believing. That's one lesson she will take from it all and wants to pass on to her students. Never give up on your dreams.

"I missed out in the qualifying tournament that was the European Championships in Poland in June 2023. I was just one fight off qualifying. Then in the second qualifying tournament in Milan I missed out on that as well, that was probably the lowest point in the whole journey. So there was that extra pressure going into that tournament in Thailand because this was my final chance to qualify but thankfully it all worked out in the end. I always say everything works out in the end."

Participating in the Olympics brought home to Lehane some important life lessons. "I think it got me to appreciate everything in life. It was such an amazing experience one I will remember forever. It showed me how much my family and friends mean to me. It just made everything that much more special by them being over there, supporting me.

"Obviously the result was disappointing but I was just so thankful they were there for me and I appreciated all the support so much, even back in Ashbourne the support was overwhelming at times, there were a few posters of me around the town which were a bit mad to see and I knew kids and others were tuning in, it was amazing."

Los Angeles 2028, at this juncture, seems a long way off and Lehane isn't looking that far ahead just now. She's content to get back to do some boxing with her club colleagues. It's about slowly getting back into things, looking after the body and nursing "a few niggles" she picked up along the way. The national championships in November are a realistic target. It's one tentative step at a time. There was some talk that boxing might be banned from the 2028 Olympics because of a power struggled between the IABA and those who govern the Olympics. She's horrified by such a suggestion pointing out that some truly genuine boxing icons such as Muhammad Ali, first made a name for himself in the Olympics.

Jenny Lehane has so many memories from her time in the great sporting extravaganza including the spectacular, all-singing, all-dancing closing ceremony which she attended and also found "amazing."

The there was that moment when she walked out of her dressingroom and the noise in the arena hit her - full on. That was special. That's indelibly filed away. A moment from a few unforgettable weeks in the young Ashbourne woman's sporting life.