It's after midnight on August 9 2012 and I'm in a hotel room in the coastal city of Busan in South Korea trying desperately to get RTE Player to work on my laptop.
Back home in Ireland, office workers spill into pubs and people are getting comfy on their sofas, preparing to cheer Katie Taylor towards her lifelong goal. In Katie's hometown of Bray, Co. Wicklow, locals and visitors alike are out in force to watch her do battle with Sofya Ochigava of Russia in the women's lightweight final at the 2012 Olympics in London.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5qQOAE184w
My feed is stopping and starting but every so often I get a good clear stream of commentator Jimmy Magee describing the action for Irish supporters around the world. The Player crashes towards the end of the fight but it comes back just as it is announced that Katie has won gold. I'm jumping around the room and all across the globe the Irish are embracing, pints spilling everywhere as Katie falls to her knees in a huge display of emotion.
https://twitter.com/IABABOXING/status/1265318000934166531
It's undoubtedly one of Ireland's greatest sporting moments and you'll get the opportunity to relive it all on Thursday night when RTE replays the fight in all its glory. As part of the RTE Sport classics series that has been giving people their sport fix throughout the pandemic, Katie's finest hour will be shown at 9.30pm on RTE 2.
Clear the schedule, set the recorder or do what you need to do because it's the perfect opportunity to reflect on a summer when Taylor did us all so proud.
