Pic: John Walsh
Adam Nolan with his parents John and Anne, brother Darren and sister Leanne.

THIS SUNDAY, Ballagh man Adam Nolan will fulfil a dream he has held since the first day he stepped into a boxing ring. This Sunday, he will step into his first round fight at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. He spoke to The Echo’s Anna Hayes before jetting off to the biggest sporting event in the world.

It began with a broken finger in 2009 and a difficult decision for 25-year-old Adam Nolan, who had been training in Bray boxing club since the year before. The nature of the injury? A hurling practice match with local club Oulart the Ballagh after being persuaded to play with the intermediates.

“I often say to my father that I wanted to thank that lad for breaking my finger because if it hadn’t happened I would have jumped at the chance to hurl for the club,” says Adam, explaining that senior manager Liam Dunne had phoned him up after the game to ask him to join the panel.

It was a difficult decision but Adam opted for the boxing: “It could have gone the other way but I’m happy now that I stuck with the boxing. Maybe at the time when I hung up the phone I was asking myself if I was stupid but I have no regrets.”

Adam began boxing at a young age, on Friday nights in the local club where he was trained by Martin O’Connor and his father John “Bumpy” Nolan: “They were my first two trainers so I owe them a lot of thanks as well for being in this position today.”

From there, following a brief closure of the Ballagh club, Adam and his brother Darren joined St. Ibar’s Boxing Club where they came in contact with the only other Wexford man to box in the Olympics – Billy Walsh.

“We moved in there in 1997 and Darren won an All Ireland title the following year. I won my first one at 11 years of age in 1999 with Billy. So thirteen years on, to still have him in my corner is a bit of a fairytale story.” Speaking to The Echo earlier this year, coach Billy Walsh pointed out how he had long hoped to have a Wexford man in his team for the Olympics and was thrilled that Adam had made the breakthrough.

Adam qualified for the Olympics following a semi-final win over Romanian Ionut Gheorghe at the AIBA European Olympic Qualifying tournament inTrabzon,Turkey. He went on to win that competition, beating German boxer Patrick Wojcicki in the final.

“When I last spoke to you it hadn’t sunk in. I’ve had a bit more time to think about it now. After qualifying I had two weeks off to enjoy it with family and friends and I think sometime, maybe ten or twelve days later, I was at home one day and it just hit me,” says Adam who has been given time off from his job as a Garda in Bray to concentrate on preparing for the Olympics.

Adam, who was a pupil of the local national school and St. Mary’s CBS in Enniscorthy, studied Land Surveying in D.I.T. before opting to join the Gardai. He had stepped back from boxing during his college years but when he was stationed in Bray in 2008, he decided to join the local club and “do a bit of training” with trainer Pete Taylor and World Champion Katie Taylor.

“Pete’s a great coach and mentor, he has instilled a lot of confidence in me and he’s helped to take me to another level. Training with Katie is also a huge benefit, she’s a World Champion and in my opinion, the greatest sports personIrelandhas ever produced, male or female,” says Adam of the Wicklow boxer, who qualified a few weeks after him inChina.

In addition to training with the High Performance Squad and Olympic team, Adam does his own Sunday training with Padraig Murphy who has helped him to improve his strength and conditioning, adding an extra dimension to his fighting ability.

On a drizzly April Sunday evening, crowds lined the streets of The Ballagh to welcome Adam home after his qualification: “Over the last few months, that’s one memory that will stick with me. I wasn’t expecting it at all. To come through the village and see the crowd both left and right and all the people I had great times with in the hurling field and people I hadn’t seen in years. It was like 1996 all over again. Winning is one thing but to have that level of support from people drives you on as well.”

Adam’s family are no strangers to success. In addition to the boxing success of both Nolan brothers, Darren also holds a number of Senior County Medals hurling for Oulart the Ballagh, while younger sister Leanne was part of last year’s camogie panel that won the All Ireland Club Championship.

“I’ve always been able to fall back on Darren, who’s a very good coach if Pete or Billy are away. If it weren’t for my father, I might never have picked up a pair of boxing gloves and my mother and Leanne have always looked after me when I’m home. If I was trying to make my weight they’d cook lovely food for me because I’m not much of a chef. I don’t want for anything when I’m at home and I can’t thank them enough.”

Adam’s mother Anne was unable to watch his qualification fight in April, choosing instead to wait in the car while the rest of the family, some friends and neighbours took over the sitting room in the house: “I saw some photos after, when I came home and my father was up on lads’ shoulders, backs, he was thrilled. My mother couldn’t watch. Even when Leanne ran out and told her I was going to win, she wouldn’t come in. She’ll watch inLondonbut it’ll probably be through her fingers,” he jokes.

On Sunday, Adam will step into the ring for his first fight in the 2012 Olympics. He is fully aware, given the calibre of the 28 fighters in his group, that every second counts if he is to progress further: “It’s about performances. I can’t think about medals at this stage, I can’t look beyond July 29. There’s no point because if things don’t go well for me that day then that’s it. So I need to concentrate on my performance and I know that if I get in the ring in the right frame of mind and do what I’m good at then I’ve every chance of getting to the next stage on August3.”

From London to the Ballagh, Adam comes back once again to his homecoming earlier this year and thinks about the possibility of another one in a month’s time: “I watched the Olympics in the Garda College in 2008 and if someone had told me ‘that’ll be you in four years’, I’d have laughed at them. There are 28 boxers from all over the world and we’re all there on merit. If I go out and perform my best then anything is possible.”

Pic: Christy Farrell
Adam Nolan, Champion of the Ballagh. Adam, pictured at the homecoming after his qualification earlier this year.