Caitlin Parker

When Caitlin Parker was just 11 years old, she was encouraged by her father to start a combat sport. This was primarily due to him insisting that she wasn’t allowed to walk to school by herself until she attained a black belt. Initially starting off in Taekwondo, Caitlin quickly discovered boxing to be her true passion.

From there, her career skyrocketed and she has been involved in elite-level boxing since the age of 15.

Caitlin has won multiple Australian championships and is the only Australian to ever win a medal at both a Junior and Youth World Championships.

In 2014 Caitlin competed at the Youth Olympic Games held in Nanjing, China where she won the bronze medal in the 75kg category.

Just four years later she represented Australia at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. Here, Caitlin took the next step up the podium and walked away with a silver medal. She was also named captain of the Australian Boxing Team and led the team to its most successful performance in Commonwealth Games history.

In March 2020, Caitlin competed in the Asia and Oceania Olympic Qualification tournament in Amman, Jordan. The talented boxer ranked in the top two in Asia and Oceania at this event, and successfully qualified herself for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. 

Caitlin made her Olympic debut at the delayed Tokyo 2020 Games in 2021, competing in the 75kg category. She faced Panama's Atheyna Bylon in the round of 16 and unfortunately lost on a points decision.

The West Australian returned to Commonwealth Games action at Birmingham 2022, coming away with a women's 75kg bronze medal after losing her semi-final bout to reigning world champion and eventual gold medallist Tammara Thibeault of Canada. 

At the 2023 world championships in New Delhi, India, Caitlin came up against Bylon again in the quarter-final. This time she triumphed, before dispatching Kazakhstan’s 2016 welterweight world champion Valentina Khalzova by unanimous decision to make the final. 

Caitlin was edged out by Indian fighter Lovlina Borgohain in a split decision in the gold medal bout, but her silver medal was tangible proof of how far she had come as a boxer.

A few months later Caitlin ensured she will be the first Australian female boxer to compete in two Olympics when she won a quota place by beating New Zealand’s Deanne Read in the gold medal bout at the Pacific Games in Honiara, Solomon Islands.

At the Paris 2024 Olympics Caitlin progressed through the women's 75kg round of 16 and the quarter-finals to become the first Australian woman to medal at the Olympics.

Her run stopped in the semi-finals where she fell to Chinese boxer Li Qian, which gave the Aussie a bronze medal three years after her Tokyo Olympic boxing teammate Harry Garside also won Olympic bronze.

Despite her athletic talent, Caitlin believes the secret to her success lies in proving people wrong and breaking gender stereotypes.

“There's always been something in me that wants to prove myself and to everyone else that I’m good enough, and that being female wasn’t going to stop me,” she said.

“It probably started in rugby when I was the only girl in the team and I could hear the boys on the other team making comments. I made it my objective to show everyone that I can be better than the boys.

“It was exactly the same in the boxing ring, especially when I was young because I always had to spar with the boys as there weren’t many girls around. The boys didn’t want to punch me to start with, but after I got them with a few shots, they definitely wanted to get competitive and get me back!

“I know that through this cycle coming into Paris, I’m in such a different place mentally. I've taken so much from my previous disappointment, and I'll do whatever it takes not to feel those feelings again.

“I changed coaches and I'm now more aggressive coming forward. If they want to come at me and try to box me, beautiful, I've got something for that and I’m equally happy in the clinch, so I can adapt in the ring to every kind of opponent that comes at me.”