Lewis Richardson is set to fulfil his Olympic dream when he boxes for Team GB in Paris -- but he had to reinvent himself as a junior middleweight to make it happen.
Men's boxing in Paris will have seven weight classes -- its fewest since the 1908 Olympics in London. For Richardson and others, the reduction of the men's event had a big impact as the Great Britain boxer's natural weight of middleweight (75kg) was removed from the Games.
Richardson feared he would miss out on fighting at the Olympics after the announcement and a wrist injury kept him out for most of last year. But Richardson, 27, from Colchester, Essex, insists he has proved he can boil himself down to the 71kg junior middleweight limit and win fights.
Richardson secured qualification to the Olympics last month when he defeated Puerto Rico's Angel Gabriel Llanos Perez via a unanimous points decision at a qualification event in Bangkok, Thailand. It was his fourth win in six days and he is part of a team of six (three men, three women) who will be representing Great Britain in Paris, but it will not be at his normalweight class.
"The last few years have brought me the biggest challenges and most adversity to overcome," Richardson told ESPN.
"Early on into an already shortened Olympic cycle of three years, there was an announcement that were would be no middleweight men's tournament in Paris. Heading into the middle of 2022 there was a lot of uncertainty. I had the European and Commonwealth Games to concentrate on as a middleweight but after those two tournaments, which I medalled at, the path was unclear.
"I also had another injury, I needed surgery on my left wrist which put me out for nine months to a year. In 2023, I wasn't sure what my opportunities were, and it looked for a while that my Olympic dream was over. My girlfriend said you will be there, it's meant to be, but I said I've got to move on, the dream is over, we need to explore other avenues, which meant turning professional.
"Then I got sent to a Team GB boxing tournament in Spain in November last year. I had been out of the ring 366 days and I ended up winning three fights, won best boxer of the tournament, and that was at middleweight. After that I said to myself it's nine months to the Games, can you commit for nine months and pursue every possible avenue to get to the Olympics?
"I had to fight just to get selected because we already had a set of established 71kg fighters but I showed the coaches what they wanted to see and I've repaid the faith they showed in me by qualifying for the Games.
"The weight change is an uncontrollable for myself, all I can do is focus on the controllable, such as: 'Can I make the 71kg division?'
"I have had 13 fights at the weight in six months and I have shown to everyone worldwide by qualifying that I can make it and I can perform at it. It's a challenge, my natural body weight is not 71kg. I'm a pretty strong middleweight so to drop down to light-middle and in amateur boxing you have to make it day after day and make weight in the morning of the fight, so it is a bigger challenge. But I feel like I have demonstrated I can do it on numerous occasions, and I showed it by qualifying for the Games."
Richardson missed out on qualifying for the last Olympics in Tokyo three years ago and has had to contend with serious injuries such as stress fractures in his lower back.
"The stress fractures were early in my Team GB career in 2018, that put me out for a year," Richardson said.
"Then heading into Tokyo I was still pretty inexperienced and unfortunately I only had one chance to qualify because of Covid-19 and that qualifier was against the world No. 1 Oleksandr Kyzhniak, from Ukraine, who went on to win silver.
"Tokyo wasn't meant to be and it hurt but I knew deep down Paris was the one for me. When you go through moments of adversity and setbacks you think: 'Why me?'
"But in hindsight all those setbacks, challenges and losses have made me the person I am today, as a boxer and person I am. They have moulded me and it's a testament to myself that I bounced back stronger from the controllable and uncontrollable obstacles that were put in my way."
Richardson begins his quest to win a medal against Russian-born Serbian boxer Vakhid Abbasov on Wednesday, after first taking up boxing to keep fit for football.
"Me and friends in council estate stumbled across the boxing gym one day and we all popped in the gym," Richardson said.
"One by one they dropped out but I stuck with it, I wanted to get a bit of extra fitness for football. Bout by bout I really enjoyed it. I was playing for Wivenhoe Town FC and first amateur boxing club was Centurions ABC."
It's in the ring and not on the pitch that Richardson will hope to shine on in Paris.