Emma-Sue Greentree: “I genuinely love boxing, and I truly believe I have the potential to achieve something really special in the sport.”

Emma-Sue Greentree: “I genuinely love boxing, and I truly believe I have the potential to achieve something really special in the sport.”

It was another magical moment in a career that is ever so surely morphing into something really special. Emma-Sue Greentree went to last month’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow with realistic hopes of going back to her native Australia with a gold medal. And that’s exactly how it transpired.

Greentree stood at the top of the podium after she claimed the top spot in the 75kg weight category. “Wow, what an experience,” Greentree told FightPost. “It was definitely one of the best experiences of my life. Even though it was a reduced games, I believe Glasgow took it on and proved that it can be done. I believe it’s created a new way of doing things in regard to multi-sport competitions.”

“My memories from the games will never be forgotten,” the 27-year-old added. “I mean the gold medal was a huge bonus, and I made the promise I would come home with it.

“The opening and closing ceremonies were amazing; I have never experienced anything like it! From swapping pins with other countries, meeting so many inspirational athletes from different walks of life and hearing their stories was incredible. So many different sports I was lucky to witness, from para powerlifting to 3×3 basketball. I don’t even think I can fully comprehend the whole experience; it still feels so unreal and like a dream.

“From the little girl writing my goals to compete at the Commonwealth Games and the Olympics in my grade 3 class to actually ticking one of these off (in a different sport) is a pretty unbelievable feeling.”

As Greentree detailed, it’s been a moment that she has dreamed of since her formative years. “I don’t think I have ever jumped so high,” Greentree said of the moment when her hand was raised and that long-time dream was realised in Glasgow. “When my hand was raised, I looked at my corner and saw my coaches jumping around. I was so emotional. I’ve never cried after a win, but for this one, I did.”

“I was super lucky to have my home coach Dean Robinson be the lead coach of the boxing team, so seeing him so hyped and emotional meant even more,” Greentree added. “We had spoken of this moment often in training! How achievable it was. And to pull it off… wow.”

“This gold medal really cements my own belief in myself,” Greentree says. “Every athlete has their self-doubt, but this win really helps me believe in the next few years in the amateur scene. All the hard work and sacrifices become all the more worth it.”

For Emma-Sue Greentree, the work never stops. As one tournament ends, another begins. “For the remainder of this year, there’s the World Cup Final in Uzbekistan, which is at the end of November. That will be the focus for the next twelve weeks. Lots of training and refining on things we discovered from the Commonwealth Games. Watching over old footage and combing through it. There’s always room for improvement, and I want that to be apparent in Uzbekistan. I want to give myself the best opportunity leading into the Olympic trials and following that, the Olympics.”

The Olympics have been a long-time goal for Greentree. A little bit of friendly sibling rivalry, and a grim determination to reach the pinnacle of her sport. “I always joke about saying I want to do one better than my sister, who was in the Australian Softball Team at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, where she came home with a bronze medal. But when I think about it more and more, I really just want to be that kid who had a crazy dream and made it a reality.

“I loved the Olympics since I was a kid. It’s all I dreamed about. I would always write about it at school and play pretend that I was there. Watching Usain Bolt break records, my sister get a bronze. It was something I wanted so, so, so bad. It is also something Robbo (Dean Robinson) and I talk about constantly. Get to the Olympics and cement a name for the pro scene.”

Greentree is also chasing glory in the professional ranks alongside her amateur aspirations. The Australian is unbeaten in two fights and is already highly-ranked in the light-heavyweight division. The 27-year-old should have had her third pro fight, but her scheduled bout fell through at the eleventh hour. “I was meant to have a fight on September 5th,” Greentree told me. “But unfortunately, my opponent had to withdraw due to injury. Whilst I would have loved to be straight back in the ring, I’m not upset. It’s allowed me to settle back into life. I was away from home for eighty days, the longest I’ve been away, so the return to normal life has been a huge adjustment.”

The Canadian Tamm Thibeault recently became the unified world middleweight champion. Thibeault is also looking at competing in the 2028 Olympics. Greentree takes inspiration from what Thibeault is doing in both codes. “Watching Tamm do her thing in the pros was awesome, and I’d absolutely be open to the opportunity. The Olympics are still the ultimate goal for me, but I’m definitely interested in exploring how the pro side could fit around that where it makes sense.”

You sense her sport means everything to Emma-Sue Greentree. “I genuinely love boxing, and I truly believe I have the potential to achieve something really special in the sport,” Greentree relayed to me. “I want to keep pushing myself, to see just how far I can take it, and hopefully inspire other people along the way to chase their own goals and back themselves. At the end of the day, I want to look back when I’m older and know I gave this everything I had, and hopefully have some pretty good stories to tell along the way.”