Rosie Eccles said her body can no longer cope with the demands of training for the Olympics after she announced her decision to leave the GB Boxing squad.
The Welsh light-middleweight has chosen to leave the World Class Programme (WCP) for boxing and will not be part of the GB team at Los Angeles 2028, which would have been her second Games.
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Eccles will now train with the Welsh national team in Cardiff and plans to defend her 2022 Commonwealth gold medal in Glasgow this summer.
“I hope for one last dance before I retire from the sport altogether. My goal is to compete one final time under the Welsh flag at the Commonwealth Games and bring home one last medal for my country,” she said.
The 29-year-old from Caldicot won gold at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham having won silver in Gold Coast, Australia, four years earlier.
She controversially exited the Paris Olympics in 2024 following a split-decision loss to Poland’s Aneta Rygielska in the women’s 66kg boxing.
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Eccles has struggled with illness and injury regularly through her career. She missed out on a place at the Tokyo Olympics because of Covid and has had to overcome nerve damage in her arm, a lower back fracture and a knee injury.
“As much as I still desire Olympic glory in LA, the reality is that my body has new limits now,” she said.
“I’ve worked relentlessly to return to competitive form after serious injuries but to expect my body to endure another two and a half years of what Olympic success demands would be unrealistic.
“My proudest moment will always be securing my Olympic qualification and then, a year later, walking to the ring for my Olympic debut in Paris. Absolute magic. And a true team effort.”
Eccles competed at the Paris Olympics in 2024 where she lost to Poland’s Aneta Rygielska [Getty Images]
Eccles took up boxing aged 16 and joined the GB squad in 2018. She said it had been a “privilege” to chase her childhood dream.
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“If you had told the younger me that I would spend eight years living away from home, training three times a day on a World Class Programme in pursuit of the Olympics, I would have been in awe,” she added.
She has one more goal to achieve before retiring and is fully focused on finishing on a high.
“For these final six months, I am heading home to my Welsh team to finish my career where it all began before turning my focus to giving back to the sport that has given me everything.”
Rob McCracken, GB Boxing’s performance director, said winning a medal in the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow would be “a fitting end to a brilliant career”.
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“Rosie has been a brilliant boxer for us who always gave her all and she is an absolute credit to herself, her family, GB Boxing and Welsh sport,” he added.
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