Kenny Lally will try to punch his way to the 2012 London Olympics this week in Rio de Janeiro.
The Prince George boxer is in Brazil at the week-long AIBA American Olympic Qualifying event that started Friday, trying to land an Olympic spot for Canada in the final qualification event. The 22-year-old, ranked 19th in the world in the 52-kilogram category, has spent nearly half his life pursing boxing glory.
"It's been the best nine years of my life," said Lally, who trains with Bob Pegues at the Inner City Boxing Club in Prince George. "There's been bad stuff but this has been the most fun journey of my life, getting to travel around the country with Jag [Seehra] and Bob, getting to travel around the world and fight. It's hard, but I wouldn't have it any other way. It's such a blast. People dream of this and I'm actually living it. It's amazing."
Lally needs to earn a gold or silver medal in Rio in a weight class that features 16 boxers from across North, South and Central America. Only one Canadian boxer, Adam Trupish, qualified for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. The welterweight boxer fell in his first bout.
Since March, Lally has travelled to Detroit, Toronto and Montreal to prepare for the qualifier. He also took part in a training camp in Puerto Rico where he sparred with A-team fighters from the island.
In addition to having his family cheering him on in Rio, Pegues has made the trek to join his protg, much to Lally's delight.
"What I want most in the world is to have Bob there even if he can't corner me," said Lally. "He's going to pull me up and he's going to be right there. At the worlds [in June 2011], I lost by one point. I bet if Bob was there warming me up as we usually do I could've done a little bit better, but I'm not going to dwell on it.
"It's his dream too. Since he was young he always wanted to go to the Olympics and I want him there with me because we've been on the journey together and he deserves it as much as I do," he added.
The bond between Pegues and his two boxers, Lally and Seehra, runs as deep as the unorthodox training they do. Without an actual boxing club to call home, they train at the Charles Jago Northern Sport Centre on the UNBC campus.
"Upstairs on the track we do all anaerobic lactic training, occasionally we'll come in [the gym] and hit the bag, but mainly we work with medicine balls, rubber elastic bands and now we're starting weights," said Lally. "I feel what we have is unique and look where it's got us."
Lally earned his spot on the Canadian national A team in 2011, while Seehra was on the national B team until losing his spot in February.
Lally said the competition will be tough in Rio, but he's ready to show he can go glove-to-glove with anyone.
"I see the guys at the worlds and they're amazing fighters, I'm not going to take anything away from them," he said. "If I can qualify to the Olympics and make it there then I deserve to be there with them. It doesn't give them any right to be better than me."
