Imogen McDonnell: “I want to be a better version of myself, and I want to reach my full potential.”

Imogen McDonnell: “I want to be a better version of me, and I want to reach my full potential.”

Another day was drawing to a close. Another day on a hospital ward was over. Another training session had just been completed as I connected over Zoom with the Australian amateur boxer Imogen McDonnell.

“I live in Victoria now, but I grew up in a coastal peninsula in South Australia,” Imogen told me about her early life. “It was a very rural isolated type of peninsula. There was plenty of farmland. Small schools and hospitals. There’s not much in the way of anything, really. Everything is sort of closed at 5pm. But it did have a very heavy sporting community. Lots of netball, basketball, and football. I had a very active family, so we played a lot of sports growing up. We had lots of horses as well, and Mum started all that. So we were very lucky, we grew up riding as well. I had a good country upbringing with lots of sports and horses. But no boxing, though, there was no boxing in our family.”

Maybe a sporting life was always on the cards for Imogen. A quiet rural early life with a multitude of different sports surrounding her. But thoughts of boxing were nowhere in sight as a career riding horses looked more than likely, she told me.

“I rode six months a year. We were affiliated with pony clubs. So that was competing in Equestrian, Cross Country, Showjumping, and Dressage. The other six months we played Polocrosse, so we were very spoiled for choice.”

But it was a move from her family home that resulted in the first seeds being planted for a move into a sport that has now fully consumed her.

“I had moved to Victoria for the horses,” Imogen told me. “It’s very big here, so I came to Victoria initially for that. I met a girl through racing who was a very good junior amateur boxer who had won an Australian title. She always used to say to me to come to boxing because it’s great and all that. I always had an interest in sports and being active, so I thought, why not. That kind of sparked an interest, and her coach said I was good enough to have a fight if I wanted to.”

As with many, the noble art soon hooked her in. Her friend’s initial suggestion very quickly morphed into more.

“Initially, I probably didn’t realise what I’d walked into,” Imogen says of those embryonic days in her new sport. “Back then, I was a perfectionist. I liked to get things right. I felt validated by ticking those boxes. Feeling that self-improvement was very satisfying. But it’s funny now that I’ve got more into it and I am competitive now in the sport it’s more like a lifestyle now. My partner boxes full-time, and my friend Katie Riddle boxes full-time as well. We have this amazing little community of people. It’s easy to forget why you stay in the sport because there are so many layers to it. Back when I started, I could never have pictured this is where I would be with boxing, something that almost consumed my whole life.”

Boxing can take everything. An unforgiving sport that requires you to give everything and a little bit more. But if you add working as a nurse and doing shift work, it becomes an almost impossible situation where, eventually, something will give. And it did, Imogen relayed to me.

“I’m a nurse as well, and I do shift work. When I was training and studying to be a nurse, I was still riding the horses full-time. So I was burning the candle at every single end. I just didn’t know any better. I didn’t know how to operate any other way. When I came out on the other side after graduating with my nursing, I then went into a registered nursing position I just thought I would breeze into this thinking what’s a bit of shift work and a bit of training. But I never expected to struggle as much as I did with night shifts.

“I had a fight a little while ago after a run of four-night shifts. It’s hard to eat at certain times of the day. It really upset my digestive system. I had to get psychological help. I kept thinking I was no good at this night shift thing. The other nurses would eat some chips, smile, and wave and just get on with it. But for me, all these red flags were coming up. With being an athlete, you are always hyper-aware of how it is functioning, and whether it is performing well. All these engine-like warning lights were coming through. My body wasn’t digesting food properly. I was working with a dietician, she was trying to help me but I just couldn’t cut it. I’m still working as a nurse on the same ward, but I have reduced my contracted hours to try and combat that sort of fatigue.”

With the acceptance that her body needed a rest and changes needed to be made, Imogen did exactly that.

“I had a fight at the end of December, and then I took the rest of the Christmas period to myself,” Imogen told FightPost. “I told myself I would have a slower start to the year. I was really sick and burnt out at the end of 2023. Injuries, illness, and all that kind of stuff. I took that fight knowing I was fit but also that I was sick. But it was a good reality check for me. I told myself I wouldn’t lose to this fighter even on a bad day. But I did lose to her. You tell yourself and get that mentality that you can just tough it out. But all of these things were cropping up. I was lucky I had a really good doctor, she was very thorough. Knowing I was starting my graduation year, I would just have a slower start to this year, and I did, I had my first fight of the year only a few weeks ago.”

But now the body and mind have had a full recharge, Imogen is back and looking forward to what lies ahead. She only started competing in 2022, and his fourteen fights into her career, and has already shared the ring with the decorated Australian amateur Kaye Scott. But Imogen wants to compete at that kind of level on a more regular basis. There are tentative thoughts of one day having a few professional fights, but the immediate goal is targeting fighting on the Olympic stage, if the sport remains an Olympic sport after Paris of course, as well as competing at a Commonwealth Games.

“For me, being the focus is being the best boxer that I can possibly be, Imogen says of what her future could be. “I’m always wanting to add new tools to the kit. I want to be a better boxer. I want to be a smarter boxer. I want to be a more efficient fighter. I want to train better. I want to be a better version of myself, and I want to reach my full potential. I am only twenty-six, so I have got time to do that. That full potential might only be a state title. But I would love it to be a Commonwealth Games or even an Olympic Games. I really hope that the best version of me is good enough to reach the level that I want to reach.”