Three years ago, Amy Andrew was sitting behind a computer at the London office of a leading English online news website, writing about finance and small business. She had been a journalist for 10 years. But then she decided she doesn’t want to do it anymore.
So Andrew signed up a for a white-collar bout in 2015 and took a two-month training in boxing. During her course, she fell in love with the sport and after a couple of bouts, decided to take it up full-time.
The 32-year-old is now in New Delhi, competing in her first boxing world championships where she also won her debut bout against Hadjila Khelif of Algeria by unanimous decision, making it a dream debut.
Representing New Zealand at the Championships, the 57-kg boxer remembers the first time she was introduced to the sport during the London Olympics in 2012, when her then-boyfriend gave her tickets to the boxing bouts.
“I watched Anthony Joshua win in London and I loved the sport,” she said. “I love sparring and I have never looked back and thought of going back to journalism. I’ll let him know now and thank him.”
The decision to leave a full-time job and take up boxing was not an easy one for her. But with the support of her family, she decided to keep the struggle going even when she had no money to buy basic necessities.
“It was tough to give up a salary and then do something which won’t even pay. But sometimes you got to do and deal with the consequences,” she said.
Even for her first world championships, Andrew did not have the bank balance to travel to India. So apart from her savings, her friends and sparring partners in England decided to raise the money.
“There was a time when I was broke. That’s tough and there are expenses like travelling. I travelled to India on my own money and some of the people in England fund raised for me because they are nice,” she said, laughing.
Medals on her mind
The highs and lows of her sporting career have motivated Andrew to keep doing what she loves as the sport has given her the best moment of her career.
“When I arrived in India and I sparred with others for competition, I looked around and saw so many stars including Mary [Kom] and it was great. This is the best moment of my career.
“When I began boxing I did not think I could be here [at the world championships] but now that I am, I want to improve and imagine myself winning medals. I love the sport and never looked back regretting my decision.”
Amy is representing New Zealand for the first time as her mother is a native of the country but she wants to continue with her new home and train there.
“I have big family and a lot of my mother’s side are in New Zealand. Up until recently, my parents were living in New Zealand. But my parents moved around quite a lot when I was growing up. But if I do well here I’ll like to train there because it’s a great club.”
Andrew has been in the dual role of a trainer-cum-player since the beginning but of late, she has turned an adviser on career decisions as well.
“Lot of people come to me and ask for advice to change career and ask me how I did it. I just say just go for it and it will be tough but do it. It’s not easy and you’ll be broke,” she said.
She is yet to decide what could be her profession after she is finished with boxing for good. Journalism is an option. She remembers the 10 years in the profession and despite not writing about sports ever, she has a headline for the report of her first every about at World Championships – “the first experience.”