拳击运动员–Tom Stalker

I started boxing at the age of 19. Before I started boxing I was going out and, I’m not proud of it, I say this to everyone who I speak to, I was out robbing cars and just doing silly stuff and then my Nan died in 2003, and my girlfriend got pregnant with my little girl now and, I just basically went to the boxing gym. I was, for a year, I was just training all the time and then I had my first fight when I was 19. 

I’ve won, like, a Commonwealth Gold medal in Delhi in 2010. I’ve won two European silvers. I was, like, the first Scouser to win one since 1956, so to win two in the space of two years… I’ve done alright. I’ve won, like, European Union gold, I’ve won quite a lot of Multi Nations and stuff, but the pinnacle of boxing is the Olympics and that’s what every boxer in the gym is aiming for.

Basically, we’re in this gym all year round. We train three times a day.  We get up at 7, you do, like, all different sorts of sprints round the running track. You go back to the flat, you have your breakfast, have a little sleep, get up at 10, you do, like, a full weight session with our S and C coach*, Ian Pyper and then you do like, come up here where there are tellys over there, which have got like… there’s like tactics how to win a fight and stuff like that.  Then, we all come in then, four boxers, we all do (sessions) like four free sparring, three pads, there’s just a big session really, then a circuit so, basically you’re just training, sleeping, eating, and that’s all you do, it’s like really hard.

I got told the best years of your life are when you’re 20 to 30 and they are because you’re going out partying, this and that, and we sacrifice it to be in here and like, that’s why I want to win everything I go in and be the best so… yeah.

I’ve been 60 kilos for quite a few years and, after the Commonwealth Games I came home and went on holiday and I was like a stone and a half over my weight. I just didn’t check my weight. I went on holiday and did 6 one-hour runs, you wouldn’t believe, 6 one-hour runs, come home and I was like, 69 kilo, and I was like… I was scared to tell Great Britain about my weight and stuff,  it wasn’t like I was just eating loads, I’m actually quite big for the weight, so I’d spoke to Rob and he just sat me down and said listen we support you 110% on your new weight category…and…I’ve got a silver medal in the European Championships which people don’t realise how hard it is to do, at my new weight class, so I basically proved that I can perform at my new weight.

My style I…really…I just know how to win and walk with them, like, and the biggest thing with me, I’m not the most skilled fighter but I’ve got desire to win and I’ll get in that ring and I’ll give it 110% and, like, sometimes I fight too much and like, I get a bit… instead of keeping to my boxing, I’d just say my style is… I’m awkward and people find it hard to figure my style out.

The biggest thing with me, every time I box in Liverpool and stuff I always get, because all my mates are there, I get a bit carried away and like..like want to win too much and like you’ve just got to switch off from everyone and just do what you normally do and that what I’m going to do. I’m not going to put any (no) pressure on myself by saying, I’m going to do this, I’m going to batter him. I’m just going to do my best for my country and I’m going to  get in and give it 110% and hopefully at the end of it,  I’ll be the winner and I’ll come away with a nice medal, that’s all I can say.

* An ‘S and C’ coach is a ‘strength and conditioning’ coach.