'Intimidating, but empowering': Saint John boxer medals in Sweden

Charlie Cavanagh is back in Saint John after coming second in her weight class at the Golden Girl Championship in Sweden, the world's largest independent female boxing tournament.

"I felt good," the 16-year-old St. Malachy's High School student said about her finish.

 "I mean, I was awarded right after I lost. So it was kind of sad. It was a really close fight."

• Saint John teen travels the world for boxing glory

Cavanagh stayed in Boras, Sweden, where the tournament was held, for a week.

Her plane tickets were paid by Boxing New Brunswick, she said, and Boxing Canada gave her a grant, which helped make the trip possible.

Cavanagh is known for travelling internationally to box: she flew to Puerto Rico in October 2016 for a televised fight.

As it is in Puerto Rico, women's boxing is more popular in Europe than it is in Canada, she said.

It's easy to exhaust the number of decent opponents nearby in Canada as women's boxing, said Cavanagh.

Because of that, despite losing in a unanimous decision in the final round, she is not too upset.

'Intimidating, but empowering'

"Even just being able to fight a close fight with a girl who had been a world champion before, it was great," she said.

"It was intimidating, but empowering."

There wasn't much preparation time as she only knew she was going to participate two weeks beforehand.

That's what life's like as a boxer at her level — you live on the fly and find fights where you can, she said.

"There is no off-season," she said. "I'm always training."

She said her coaches were a lot less critical of her match than she was and were "very happy she got silver."  

And she didn't make it to the final round of her weight class without her own victories.

In her first match she had her own 5-0 unanimous decision against a  seasoned 150-pound boxer from the Kazakhstan team.

Although her coach tells her school comes first — and Cavanagh is still a good student — much of her attention is directed toward boxing.

For Christmas she received a pair of bright blue and red shoes designed for the sport. They allow for quick heel turns and have the Nike logo scrawled across the side.

And she had the punching bag installed in her house just in case she can't make it to the gym.

Wants to inspire others

Cavanagh said she hopes all the trips she's been on and how far she has gone with the sport encourage other women to pick up boxing, even if not at the same level.

"A lot of girls just don't think it is a sport they can do," she said. "But it definitely is."

After high school, the Grade 11 student wants to continue boxing. There are a few university scholarships for boxers she might apply for.

And while she likes watching mixed martial arts, it doesn't tempt her.

"I'd like to continue amateur boxing, the Olympic style," she said. "I want to continue you doing this for as long as I can."