Carlagh Peake’s world silver medal silences the naysayers

“Don’t let anyone tell you that you’re not good enough.”

It’s one thing to say it, but it’s another thing live it.

That first sentence was the message 17-year-old Carlagh Peake delivered to the youth of Ballyhaunis Boxing Club from the square where crowds flocked to welcome their greatest female export home from the World Youth Championships.

The tears she shed from the podium weren’t the first to fall from her cheeks in 2024.

Her year began with an U-18 50kg All-Ireland title which got her selected to box for Ireland at the European championships in April.

There, she was sent home by the England’s reigning three-time European gold medallist Alice Pumphrey.

“When I came home I had my sight set on going to the Worlds,” Peake told The Mayo News. “I wanted to prove everyone wrong when I came back from the Europeans.”

Some weeks later, the teenager received an email telling her that she hadn’t been selected for the Irish team.

“I felt, the reasoning behind it was that I wasn’t good enough and that I’d get hurt if I traveled out with the team. I was just crying for weeks on end,” Peake recalled.

Some weeks later, her mother and coach, Sue, got a call offering her daughter a ticket to the World Youth Championships as part of the IABA neutral team. She grabbed it with both gloves.  

“I didn’t care who I was going with, I was going to that World Championships.”

Dreams of gold and silver were parked when the rubber hit the runway in Montenegro. From day one, it was always about the next fight for Peake.

“I was just trying to take it fight by fight not try to think about the medals or politics or anything behind it,” she said.

The flyweight was guaranteed at least bronze when she beat Romania’s Mihaela Ramona by unanimous decision in her flyweight semi-final.

Though she met her match in the burly Kazakh Yelyanur Turganova in the final, Peake had already silenced those who said she’d ‘get hurt’ if she traveled with Team Ireland.

“I was a bit devastated, but I kind of knew going into the decision that I’d lost it, so I was just trying to not cry in front of everyone.”

The tears she withheld in Montenegro fell freely in Ballyhaunis as the garda squad car guided her into a town square filled with joy and adoration

“It was amazing. I got so much support coming home,” Peake remarked. “I knew I won a silver, but I didn’t think that I was going to get that much support. But when I saw everyone on the square I started crying. I couldn’t hold in the emotions.

“I was asked what advice would I give to all the kids in the club and I was like: ‘Don’t let anyone tell you that you’re not good enough’.”

Her actions spoke louder than those words ever could.