WHEN Kaye Scott first wanted to box in the early 2000s, nobody would let her.
“Because it was still illegal for women in NSW,” she shrugs. “So I couldn’t fight even though I wanted to”.
Now 20 years later, the bureaucrats are at it again.
Only this time, and with Scott having risen up to become one of Australia’s best female fighters, they are now trying to force her out.
Only days after claiming a silver medal at this year’s World Championships, Scott is launching a second fight with the International Boxing Association over an age ruling she says “just doesn’t make sense”.
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According to the IBA rule book, amateur fighters can only compete until the age of 40 – a birthday milestone Scott reaches in June, next year.
As a result, the ruling means Scott could conceivably fight – and medal – at the 2024 Paris Olympics, but then be forced to quit the sport only months later.
Yet put simply, the Sydney fighter isn’t ready to go.
Especially given only this past week, and just shy of her 39th birthday, she was among three Aussie women who medalled at the IBA World Championships in India.
Apart from being the nation’s greatest ever result, it now has Scott beginning her push for selection with the Australian Olympic team – and in a lighter weight category of 66kg.
Which is itself some story.
But before taking on the world, Scott first wants a crack at the IBA.
Or more specifically, that rule suggesting when she must hang up the gloves.
“Because I want to leave boxing on my terms,” Scott told Fox Sports Australia this week.
“Which isn’t to say I’ll fight on for the next 10 years.
“But I do think I’ve got at least another two or three years left in me.
“And I should be able to make that choice.”
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Asked if her recent efforts proved the IBA stipulations were wrong, Scott continued: “Definitely. And it’s why they have to lift that ruling. It makes no sense.
“There was a time when the (amateur) age limit used to be 34. But that got changed.
“And now with all the improvements to sports science, to training practices and so on, I think they need to change it again.
“Because personally, I feel like I’m now at my peak.
“I’ve been on the national team over 10 years … but (more recently) I’ve gone top eight, top four, and now top two.
“And I really want to embrace this moment. But I feel it’s being taken from me.”
Scott, who is trained out of out of the Central Coast’s Complete Boxing Gym by head coach Joel Keegan, also pointed to the recent Tokyo Olympics as proof the rule needed changing.
“Look at Mira Potkonin from Finland, who should have been 40 at the Games,” she said.
“Yet then when everything was delayed a year (because of Covid), it meant Mira was turning 41. She should have been ineligible.
“But because of the situation, officials gave her an exemption … and she medalled at the Olympics.”
Ironically, one of the reasons Scott is only now hitting her peak, she says, is because of starting into the sport relatively late – due to women being banned from fighting in NSW between 1986 and 2009.
“I was 22,” the fighter recalled of her introduction to the sport.
“I was at university, had played netball for years, and started boxing for fun.
“I was training a couple of days a week and watching the boys from my gym fight. Then one day I asked if I could fight too.
“But my coach, he said ‘no’.
“I asked why and he said I’d have to fly up to Queensland.
“I said ‘what do you mean fly to Queensland?’
“He had to explain to me that boxing was still illegal for women in NSW …”
Yet eventually, the ban was lifted.
“And I was part of the first legalised bout in NSW,” Scott grins.
Which is why the Olympic hopeful is now looking to take on that IBA ruling, too.
Elsewhere, Scott also laughed off suggestions she should simply turn professional if she wants to keep fighting.
“So I can take the headgear off, fight pro and it’s safe when I am over 40?” she asked. “But I can’t fight as an amateur?
“I don’t understand that thinking. Don’t understand the thought processes behind it.
“It doesn’t make sense.”
While Scott normally competes at 70kg, that weight class will not be contested in Paris — meaning the Sydneysider must go down to 66kg if she wants to win selection.
So as for making the cut?
“It’s going to be a challenge,” she conceded.
“But I’ve got a team from the NSW Institute of Sport on board with me – a dietitian, strength coach, even a sports psychologist because they all know it’s going to be tricky.
“But we’ve done the medical tests and it is doable. On the harder side of things but it is possible.
“And if it’s possible I’ll make it happen.”
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