Boxer Caitlin Parker aims to make Australian Olympic history at the Tokyo Games

Her first fight was at age 13, facing an opponent over a decade her senior — an early indication that Caitlin Parker was to become no ordinary boxer.

Today, the only Australian boxer to win at both the youth and junior world championship level, captain of the most successful Australian boxing team in history at the 2018 Commonwealth games, and having clinched a youth Olympics bronze medal, her sights are firmly on the upcoming Tokyo Olympics in July.

“I love what I do,” Parker, now 24, told the ABC.

“I’ve been able to travel to many countries in the world that I never would have been able to without boxing.”

Travelling the globe, in a pre-COVID world, was not something a pre-teen Parker ever envisaged for herself.

Growing up in Gosnells, a lower socioeconomic suburb of Perth, meant her parents Craig and Keri Parker worked multiple jobs to give their daughter the opportunities to excel in the sport.

For most of Ms Parker’s life, her father worked seven days a week juggling two jobs. It’s what’s instilled in her the drive to work hard for every opportunity she’s received.

“My biggest inspirations in life are my parents. They are the hardest workers I know and they would always make the effort to come to training every night,” Parker said.

“My motivation every day is to not only do well for myself but to do well for [my parents] and make them proud.

“[Boxing has] given me so many life lessons and things from such an early age.”

From shy girl to boxing champion

Parker was going to dancing classes when her father first piqued her interest in combat sports.

She put on her first pair of boxing gloves at 11.

“I’m daddy’s girl, you know, he wanted me to be able to defend myself,” Parker said.

“And he wouldn’t let me walk to school until I got a black belt in Taekwondo.”

Now on the cusp of making childhood dreams a reality, all Parker feels about the Olympics is relief.

“There was all of the talk about the Olympics maybe being cancelled. So that got me right down, especially after being on such a high of qualifying for the games,” Parker said.

“So when they said it was postponed, I was relieved. I was like, ‘I can wait another year.'”

Parker won’t accept any possibility that the Olympics won’t go ahead; she’s focused on becoming the first female Australian boxer to win a medal at the Olympics — preferably gold.

“I think that the Olympic Games is going to happen no matter what,” she said.

“I’m not going to let any rumours or anything get in my head. Because what’s that going to do for me? Doubts aren’t going to help.”

It’s not been the clearest of paths for Parker; women’s boxing was only recognised as an Olympic sport for the 2012 London games, so attracting sponsors has been tough.

“It is hard because we are a smaller sport,” Parker said.

She’s had to hustle for most of her career, setting up a crowd funder to ensure she had some control of her destiny.

Not only did she reach her fundraising goal, but she exceeded it by almost $5,000.

Caitlin Parker’s end goal

It’s been more than a decade since Parker’s first taste of in-ring action — that fight was against a 25-year-old woman.

“I was an early grower, so I couldn’t find anyone my age and my weight,” Parker said.

Her pragmatic approach continues today, and lies behind her Olympic ambition. Success isn’t tied to a medal, she merely wants to give back to her parents.

“As an athlete now, I want to do everything I can to give back to them,” she said.

“I’d love to one day be able to afford to take them on a big holiday or buy them a car. That would be the end goal.”