- Culture
- 11 Mar 19
Released on Irish Netflix today, director Ross Whitaker's award winning documentary presents an intimate portrait of champion boxer Katie Taylor.
Irish boxer Katie Taylor has won six amateur European championships, five world amateur championships and a gold metal at the 2012 London Summer Olympics. Born and raised in Bray, Country Wicklow, she began boxing at age 11. Her first major success came when she won the gold metal at the 2005 European Amateur Championships, winning the World Amateur Championship the next year. As her career continued to boom, Taylor raised the profile of women's boxing in Ireland to new heights and became a leading voice for the inclusion of women's boxing in the Olympics. Fittingly, she won gold in the women's lightweight category at the 2012 Olympics, the first to include women's boxing. Though she faced difficulty at the 2016 Rio Olympics, shockingly crashing out in the first round, she followed suit by winning her first world title as a professional.
KATIE follows Taylor as she attempts her comeback, revealing her deeply personal struggles and her champions grit in pursuing the next faze of her career. Appearing at Galway Film Fleadh last summer, the film impressed audiences and was awarded Best Irish Feature Documentary. It is directed by seasoned documentarian Ross Whitaker, whose previous works include Unbreakable: The Mark Pollock Story and Anthony Foley: MunsterMan and produced by Ross Whitaker and Aideen O'Sullivan for True Films and Venom.
In an interview with Hot Press earlier this year, Ross Whitaker shared his admiration for Katie Taylor and her fight for the greater recognition of women's boxing: "it’s amazing that she kept going, because she had the mix of talent and determination not to be beaten that would have allowed to her be champion in any sport. But she stuck to the one sport that everyone told her she couldn’t do. It’s enthralling." Read the full article here.
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KATIE is currently available to stream on Netflix.