Australian Olympic boxer Harry Garside revealed that he unexpectedly found love when he considered giving up his job Boxing to start a new sporting venture after his shocking defeat at the Olympic Games in ParisThe 27-year-old made a triumphant comeback to the sport after being acquitted of domestic violence allegations last year, but lost his opening fight to striking Hungarian Richard Kovacs.

After the fight, Garside was seen hunched over and distraught at the back of the arena. Speaking to Channel Nine, Garside admitted he felt like a failure and that he had let Australia down after leaving the Paris Olympics after his first fight. “I’m sure the next month or two are going to be pretty challenging, pretty tough. I’m scared for my sanity, it’s getting the better of me. I feel like I’ve let myself down and I’ve let Australia down, mate, but what can you do?”

But now he’s back in Australia and has time to digest the defeat. Garside admitted that while it was hard to come to terms with his 20-year journey being over in just nine minutes, he is now focused on his new dreams and new romance. Garside says he has unexpectedly found love after moving to Sydney’s Bondi Beach and is excited about the life ahead.

“I had this strange ambition that maybe I could walk with giants, and I guess on this 20-year journey I finally got to a destination where I believed I could,” Garside said 96.9 on Tuesday. “It’s a beautiful journey, a beautiful evolution. I think the most important thing I’ve learned from it is that you have to set big, bold goals… but along the way, you end up feeling like you can achieve them.”

“During that process I actually fell in love… so it happened so unexpectedly, which I think is the best kind of love… when you’re not looking for it, but she just stumbled into my life,” he continued. “She’s originally from Sydney but currently lives in London, so I’m really excited for her to be coming back at the end of the year… she’s definitely worth the wait.”

Harry Garside reveals he wants to try triathlon

While many believed the latest defeat was just another setback for Garside’s boxing career, the 28-year-old revealed that while he will always box for pleasure, the Olympic loss could be his last professional fight. Garside says he isn’t sure what the future holds for him, but at least in the short term he wants to try his hand at some triathlons.

“I’m just trying to stay fit… The decisions I made when I failed were negative and I’m just trying my best to do more positive things,” Garside said.

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“So I train every day. I keep myself fit. In the summer I want to do some triathlons. I love boxing, so I’ll always keep boxing. I’m not sure if I’ll box professionally, at the next Olympics, I’m not sure if I’ll stop completely. But I’ve always loved it, so I’ll keep going until I lose love for it.”

with Newswire