Kaitlyn Clark a female boxer at the Beaver Boxing Gym in Ottawa is working her way towards the 2020 Olympics and multi-time Canadian time champion.
She is from Sarnia and started boxing five years ago in December 2011.
She had her first fight in June 2011 and moved to Ottawa in August of the same year.
“It’s a very different dynamic when you have a male coach rather than a female coach when you’re a female”
“I used to be a dancer, I was watching dancing with the stars, and Laila Ali came on. She was so feminine, beautiful, but still had this amazing physique that you don’t really associate with femininity. She owned it. She was so confident when she spoke.”
“I thought that was cool, so I looked her up, watched a few fights, thought it was really cool and decided then and there, that’s what I’m going to do.”
Clark’s Mom told her she could start boxing when she was 18. “When she said no, I think she was hoping it was just a phase, but it turned out that it wasn’t.”
The female boxer lives by the motto “If you want something done, ask a busy person.”
Her coach is her saving grace in and out of the ring. Perry helps her with everything from her day to day calendar, to putting her life on the line in the ring.
Clark prioritizes boxing over everything saying; “I want to be successful so badly I don’t make excuses.”
On top of training, Clark has a packed schedule, alternating between a full time job in the Canadian Institution of Health and Research department of the government, school, yoga and working with the gym teaching classes.
Clark believes the more organized in life, the more successful you will be.
Kaitlyn Clark and Jill Perry are training for Nationals coming up at the end of March.
She missed the first qualifiers due to an unrelated injury,
“The week before I got pushed off a bus, and injured myself, so I couldn’t go. Now I have to train for this qualifier coming up. That’s a little bit of added pressure.”
Perry is Clark’s rock, “I call her when I get stressed.”
Perry and Clark are working on boxing to her potential. They are both confident that she will come out on top.
Clark’s sport psychologist work together to focus on the outcome and not the process.
Perry holds Clark’s hand through training, visualisation, but mostly she supports her in the ring.
“Before I go to bed at night, I go through putting my gloves on, going into the ring, the bell goes and, bang, that’s it.”
Clark describe going into the ring as the most liberating feeling, but also the most terrifying.
She feels at home when she is in the ring.
“My legs get a little tingly, you get this nervous energy, I want to fight, I want to fight.”
Clark treats boxing as a performance; this goes back to her days as a dancer. “I look at boxing as performing; I’m putting on a show.”
“I feed off the energy” says Clark.
She loves the feeling of getting in the ring, the adrenaline rush and energizing feeling. Clark says boxers must be crazy, even insane to get in that ring.
Clark and Perry’s goal is for Clark to be Multi-time Canadian champion and make it to the 2020 Olympics.