Elise Glynn was 13 when she first walked into a boxing gym. The Birmingham native was a horse rider and cheerleader and had even dabbled in beauty pageants but surprised her father when she asked him to bring her to the gym.
She was not a welcome sight on her first day.
“I was a girl in the boxing club. They didn’t like that at the start. I was pummelled by boys 10 kilos heavier than me,” she said.
“I walked into the boxing club and they said ‘what are you doing here? You should be at home cooking and cleaning for your brothers. You shouldn’t be in this club’.”
Glynn was ignored and had to rely on copying what the boy next to her was doing, hence why the naturally left-handed southpaw actually fights in an orthodox stance.
The 22-year-old had her first fight after just six weeks and would eventually swap gyms, but Glynn never considered leaving boxing.
“No-one wanted to help me. I was thrown into the deep end from the get go,” she said.
“I feel like it’s just spurred me on to improve. Look at where I am now.
“I just came back every single day to prove I could do it. I’m a girl but it doesn’t matter.”
Glynn is now targeting Olympic qualification after winning a raft of junior titles. She is one of 10 British boxers who will fight for a spot in Paris from 3-11 March in Italy, along with team-mate and Fair Chance refugee fighter Cindy Ngamba.
Glynn’s resilience was put to the test again in the summer of 2022 when she was told she had not been selected for the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, just an hour away from where she grew up in Hockley Heath.
Glynn was told she could train at home or join Team GB as an unpaid athlete.
She took the second option and within two months performance director of GB Boxing Rob McCracken fast-tracked her on to the coveted podium team.
Last year she won best newcomer at the 2023 GB Boxing Awards.
“I’ve only been on the programme for a year,” Glynn said. “I got bypassed straight on to the podium squad.
“Rob saw something in me and put me straight on to the top.”
McCracken helped unearth the likes of two-time heavyweight champion and Olympic gold medallist Anthony Joshua. At the Tokyo Olympics, Team GB walked away with six medals, including two golds – their best tally in 101 years.
Glynn hopes to join Delicious Orie, Charley Davison and Rosie Eccles in securing a spot at the Paris Games this summer.
“I’m 22 years old but I know I can definitely go forward and get to Paris,” she said.
“It would absolutely massive to be able to get to the Olympic Games and qualify. I would cry and feel over the moon.
“Everything I’ve gone through, I’ve had so many setbacks in my career but it’s just pushed me on.
“I feel like this is the year I can truly shine and show what I’m capable of.”
