How a Saint John boxer battled her own busy schedule to take spot on elite national team

Saint John boxer Charlie Cavanagh had just four days' notice to put her new job on pause and postpone her exams to head to Ecuador for her first real boxing match since the pandemic began.

Cavanagh, 21, is joining Canada's elite national team for the 2022-23 cycle, and she'll box in Ecuador at the American Boxing Confederation continental championships.

Her plane leaves from Montreal on Tuesday morning – though at first, Cavanagh wasn't sure she'd be on it.

Her graduation from the University of New Brunswick, where she's earning a bachelor of science degree, is approaching, and she has just started a job at the Saint John Regional Hospital. 

"But it was really an opportunity that my coach and I were like, we can't pass this up. We have to see if we can make this work," she told Information Morning Saint John.

Cavanagh, who boxes out of the Saint John Golden Gloves club, said both her boss and her school were really accommodating, and she plans to write her exams and return to her job when she returns.

She said the competition in Ecuador is one of the biggest since the pandemic started.

She's been training and sparring over the past two years, but she hasn't actually had the chance to officially compete.

"For me, it's a great opportunity to get back in the ring," said Cavanagh.

"I mean, it's very high pressure, the international stage, to just jump back into it, but I think I perform best in high stress situations, so I'm hoping that it'll all just come together."

Depending on how well they do in Ecuador, Cavanagh and her team will have a chance to compete in the world championships as well as the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games in England this summer.

Those two tournaments, she said, are huge in preparation for her ultimate goal: the 2024 Olympics. 

When the 2020 Olympics did not work out the way she'd hoped, Cavanagh said she had to accept that it's OK if you don't get where you want to go on your first try.

"Sometimes there's a pandemic, and sometimes you lose a really important fight against an opponent that you've beaten before that you're capable of beating, and you just have to get back in there."

Saint John boxer Charlie Cavanagh had just 4 days notice to get ready, leave work and school and go train with Canada's elite national boxing team. She tells Information Morning's Julia Wright about how she got this once in a lifetime chance.