Jon McConnell Aims for European Glory After Commonwealth Success
Jon McConnell watched Kate O'Connor turn one golden summer into two and decided he wanted that feeling for himself.
O'Connor, the heptathlon star, stood on top of the podium at the Commonwealth Games in July, then backed it up with European glory in Birmingham a few weeks later. From Belfast, and from a very different sport, McConnell has been paying close attention.
He left Glasgow with Commonwealth gold at 70kg, Team NI's only boxing champion at the Games. It was a breakthrough moment. It was not enough.
“She is a big inspiration, winning the Commonwealths, had a week off and was back over in Birmingham to win [European] gold – hopefully I can replicate that,” McConnell told BBC Sport NI as he prepared for the European Elite Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria, which begin on Thursday.
That is the target now: a McConnell version of the O'Connor double.
From childhood dream to European ambition
The 23-year-old talks about Glasgow as the realisation of a long-held ambition, but also as a starting gun.
“I'm on the right road. The Commonwealths was a goal for me since I was a kid. It's given me a taste for more and the only way to get that buzz is to go out and win major championships.”
Sofia offers the next hit of that adrenaline. McConnell travels as part of a 14-strong Team Ireland squad, one that has already changed shape before the first bell. At women's lightweight, Kellie McLoughlin steps in after two-time Olympic champion Kellie Harrington withdrew with a hand injury.
The medals on offer are important, of course. So is something less tangible but just as valuable: a chance to measure themselves against the men they will likely see again and again on the road to Los Angeles.
Qualifying for the 2028 Olympic Games begins next year, with the World Championships and European Games looming. The faces in Sofia will not be strangers.
“It's going to be the same people you are boxing,” McConnell noted.
He refuses to look too far beyond the ropes in front of him – at least publicly.
“I take one fight and round at a time, but there is no reason why I can't be top of the podium as LA is my main goal.
“I'm national elite champion two years in a row, so if I can make that three in January, I should go to the qualifiers next year, but these European Championships I want to put a marker down.”
A women's haul and a men's drought
Ireland know what success at this level looks like. They saw it only months ago.
At the European Championships in Serbia in 2024, the team returned with two golds and two bronzes. Every one of them came from the women's squad. Shannon Sweeney took 50kg gold – she now operates at 48kg – and Aoife O'Rourke stood tall at 75kg.
Go back to Yerevan two years earlier and there were medals for the men: Gabriel Dossen with gold, Dylan Eagleson with silver. But on the world stage, the picture has been stark.
It is nine years since an Irish male boxer climbed onto a World Championships podium. Joe Ward's silver and Michael Conlan's world gold remain the last marks in the record books, Conlan still the only Irish male to win a world title.
That gap hangs over this generation. It also drives them.
“About to tip over the edge”
Interim head coach Damian Kennedy has seen enough in the gym and in recent tournaments to believe the tide is about to turn.
He talks not in vague optimism but in names and performances.
“Dean Clancy is going three fights deep into competitions on a regular basis, Jude Gallagher is going deep on a regular basis, Jack Marley is boxing the best I've ever seen him,” Kennedy said.
“Sometimes success is measured in medals but that's not always the case as I've seen the progression here.
“There are a number of athletes about to tip over the edge and when the floodgates open for the males, it will be amazing to watch.”
McConnell intends to be standing there when they burst. For him, Sofia is not a warm-up or a rehearsal. It's a statement opportunity.
O'Connor turned one golden summer into a platform for European domination. McConnell now walks into the ring in Bulgaria with the same idea in mind – to prove that Glasgow was not his peak, but the beginning of something far bigger on the road to Los Angeles.
