Harry Garside

As a nine-year-old, Harry Garside decided he wanted to take up Boxing, which came as a shock to everyone. As the youngest of three boys and closest to his mum, he was considered the ‘whimp’ of the family.

He was inspired by the Olympic Spirit from a young age, having photos of Cathy Freeman and Ian Thorpe on his bedroom ceiling to inspire him before he dropped off to sleep and when he woke up.

Harry began his journey at Lilydale Youth Club, which became his second home and at first, the youngster was known among the boxing circuit as an easy target.

He lost 10 of his first 18 fights, but this lit a fire within Harry. He harnessed an underdog mentality, motivating him to train harder and become the champion he knew he could be.

“At the time it sucked but it formed this unbreakable desire to be no.1 and not stop until I get to where I want to go,” Harry, or 'Dirty Harry' to his mates, said.

In 2015, all his hard work paid off when he won his first Australian National Championships.

In 2018 he competed at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, where he walked away with the gold medal in the men’s 60kg division.

Harry dedicated this win to his coach Brian Levier, who has been by his side since the start - continually pushing and encouraging him at every training session and competition.

Harry also credits his coach as the person who made him fall in love with the sport and who helped him believe that he could be a champion boxer one day.

Adopting the mentality to ‘wake up and be better than yesterday,' Harry has incorporated a range of new training techniques into his repertoire.

He has added two-hour ballet classes each week to take a break from the rigours of boxing. He prides himself on punctuality, respect and manners. Look closely at his legs and you'll see tattoos of his childhood hero Muhammad Ali and current mentor Vasyl Lomachenko.

Harry believes in the power of manifesting your dreams, with his bedroom covered in Olympic memorabilia, gold medals and posters with the words 'I am an Olympian,' before he had even been selected to the Tokyo 2020 Team.

Harry made his Olympic debut at the delayed Tokyo 2020 Games, competing in the lightweight division. He started with consecutive unanimous points wins against Papa New Guinea's John Ume and Namibian Jonas Jonas (the then world no.2).

This set up a quarter-final bout against Kazakhstan boxer Zakir Safiullin, where Harry showed his resilience to prevail 3-2. The result was significant in that it guaranteed Harry Garside would become Australia's first Olympic boxing medallist in 33 years, with a semi-final bout to look forward to for a chance at making the gold medal fight.

Unfortunately, he fell to eventual gold medallist and two-time world champion Andy Cruz in the semi-finals. 

Harry is the sixth Australian boxer to win a medal at the Olympics since 1908. 

After Tokyo, Harry went professional, winning his three fights, two by knockout, and claiming the Australian lightweight title with a unanimous points decision against Maneur Matet at Sydney’s Horden Pavilion in April 2022. .

The win was described as a “boxing masterclass”, with former world champion Barry Michael saying Harry “never lost a round”. 

But the Olympic spirit still burned and after finishing second to former netball champion Liz Ellis in the ninth season of I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here, Harry decided to focus on qualifying for Paris. 

A walkover win at the Pacific Games in Honiara, Solomon Islands, in November 2023 ensured Harry’s quest for Australia’s first Olympic gold medal is on track. 

Harry was set to fight for a Paris quota spot after winning his way through to the gold medal bout. But his Fijian opponent Elia Rokobuli withdrew, gifting Harry an untroubled passage.

At the Paris 2024 Olympics Harry won the opening round of his round of 16 men's 63.5kg bout against Hungarian Richard Kovacs, but lost the last two rounds and was eliminated on a points decision.

"For it to be over like that you feel like a disappointment," Harry said in the hours after the fight. "But that's sport, that's life.

"I really want people, especially young people to see that life is hard sometimes. It's always our choice what we do next and how we react to hard times."