Brixton boxer added to GB Olympic programme

Brixton-born Vivien Parsons has been added to the Great British Boxing Olympic programme.

GB Boxing added 21 new fighters at the start of the year to their world-class programme following a series of assessments, with Parsons included in the lightweight emerging talent group.

The 19-year-old has been training with Brixton boxing academy since the age of 12.

“It’s a big achievement,” head coach Bobby Miltiadous told the South London Press.

“She is one of six girls across the country to get selected for the programme.

“Her mentality stood out from the early days. Even from a young age, she was so focused. She has improved so much as a boxer.

“Vivien comes from a judo background, so to transform from that into boxing took a while, but she just kept regularly getting better through training.

“Even as a person, she became more confident, more talkative and was able to communicate better. That’s what boxing is about.

“She has grown as a person along the way. I’m very excited. I always knew something big would happen for her because of her level of dedication and her ability.

“She is still young and has been producing. She has been picking up good results, so when the opportunity came up, we trained full-time to get her through the GB assessments.

“She went up there on six separate occasions, so to hear at the end of it that she had been offered a place, it was one of those moments which reminds you why you do it. I’m very proud of her.

“It means a lot to Afewee. Because of the type of club that we are and where we’re based – right in the centre of Brixton – there are a lot of kids who come to us from low-income families and single-parent households. To have a boxer, a female boxer as well, is really important.

“She is definitely a big role model for the club and the community.”

GB Boxing’s performance director Rob McCracken, who coached Anthony Joshua and Carl Froch, said that identifying and developing new talent in the sport is “critical to the ongoing success of GB Boxing”.

Parsons said: “I was never one to get in trouble. I was very quiet at school. I was always very active and needed to do a sport. With judo, there wasn’t a lot of competition. But once I came into boxing, everything was challenging and hard – it was an incentive to keep improving.

“I did one session and said: ‘I love it’. I love the challenge of it. I don’t think I have ever come across anything like it.”

Parsons, who looks up to Irish professional boxer Katie Taylor, is the only lightweight to be included in the emerging talent group.

“It meant a lot,” she said. “It felt as though a lot of the hard work we had done had paid off.

“We had done all the assessments for about six months. I had been working with Bobby for a very long time, so it felt as though it has all come to fruition.”

She is set for her first international bout for England in Germany next month.

Parsons said: “I have been waiting to travel with England for a very long time, so to get the opportunity to represent the country would be amazing.”

She has the target of reaching the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

“It’s only next year, but you never know what could happen,” said Parsons. “Everything can change around.”

PICTURES: GB BOXING