Monique Suraci

A run of bad luck that cost Queanbeyan boxer Monique Suraci qualification for the Tokyo Olympics made her more determined than ever to get to the Paris Games.

Injury and Covid-19 got in the way of a place in Tokyo, but the setback just made Monique work harder.

“Most gifted athletes are lazy because it comes easily to them,” Monique’s coach Gary Hamilton said. “Monique works like she is not a gifted athlete, which is a dangerous combination.”

The hard work paid off in October 2023 when Monique booked her ticket to Paris by beating New Zealander Tasmyn Benny in the 50kg final at the Pacific Games in Honiara, Solomon Islands.

“I’m still wrapping my head around it,” Monique said. “It hasn’t fully sunk in yet, but I’m not satisfied by qualifying; I want to win gold at the Olympics in Paris.”

It’s been that way for most of Monique’s life. She started boxing as a six-year-old, entering her first competitions when she was 10 – and from the start she has dreamed of competing at the Olympics.

“I began boxing at the age of six because my dad wanted my sisters and I to learn self-defence,” Monique said.

In 2018, she won gold at the Youth Oceania Championships and made it to the last 16 at the World Youth Championships in Budapest.

After the disappointment of not making Tokyo, she threw herself back into training and has fought regularly against tough opponents.

In 2023, she won 13 of 16 fights she contested, most of them against international opponents, putting her on the radar of the world’s top fighters in her weight category.

Having wrapped up Olympic qualification, Monique said she has put past setbacks behind her and is focussed on the 2024 Games.

“I think everything happens for a reason,” she said. “I’m not fixated by the past.”