30-year-old Olympian and British heavyweight boxer, Cheavon Clarke, made his way into the Olympics by winning the quatre-finals in Paris earlier in June.
He used to represent his home country, Jamaica, where he was born and was initially raised by his grandparents, who had to fend for 11 kids on their farm.
In the 2014 Commonwealth games, Clarke was dumped out and decided to quit the sport.
He had to focus on driving lorries for his father’s company, delivering but just seven years ago, he was wearing a very different uniform and boxing couldn’t have been further from his thoughts.
Clarke had just been dumped out of the 2014 Commonwealth Games in his first bout, while representing the land of his birth, Jamaica. He decided to quit the sport, and began driving lorries for his father’s company, delivering DIY and home improvement supplies.
While Clarke was doing well at his new job, and was ‘feeling good for earning some money’, his closest friends expressed their disapproval about how he wasn’t fulfilling his athletic potential.
He said “My friends, they were just on to me,” he continued. “This man who’s done what you’ve done for my area, nobody’s ever achieved what you’ve achieved from our area. You’re wasting your talent. You’ll be a waste of space.”
In December 2015, Clarke decided to go back to the boxing gym where his coach asked if he’d like to box in a local community later.
The boxer got back to work but bills lingered as money wasn’t exactly coming in, which led him into combining a rigorous boxing training schedule with his full-time night shifts behind the wheel.
“I’d work all night, then I’d train three times a day. I’d train, then I’d go back home and sleep for a couple hours, have some food, train, have another nap, train, and then go straight back to work.”
In an interview, Clarke said “It was a major knock.
“I said, ‘I’ve had enough of boxing,’ I was disappointed. I threw a tantrum basically, and stopped boxing for two years.
“I had to get up at, like, five o’clock in the morning to drive the lorries, and it turns out that I’m not a morning person! So I asked them to put me on nights and that worked much better.”
“5 years ago I was a truck driver.
“Today I am an Olympian.”
click here to read the full interview with olympics.com
