Michael Carruth (born 9 July 1967) is a southpaw Irish Olympic boxer from

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

. He is best known for winning the welterweight gold medal at the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics (, ), officially the Games of the XXV Olympiad (, ) and officially branded as Barcelona '92, were an international multi-sport event held from 25 July to 9 August 1992 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Beginning in 1994 ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

. He turned professional in 1994 and retired in 2000.

Amateur boxing

;Olympic results ; 1988 Olympics Lightweight Boxing: *1st round bye *Defeated Satoru Higashi (Japan) 5-0 *Lost to George Scott (Sweden) KO by 1 ; 1992 Olympics Welterweight Boxing: *Round of 32: bye *Round of 16: Defeated Mikaele Masoe (American Samoa) on points, 11-2 *Quarter-final: Defeated Andreas Otto (Germany) on points, 35-22 *Semi-final: Defeated Arkhom Chenglai (Thailand) on points, 11-4 *Final: Defeated Juan Hernández Sierra (Cuba) on points, 13-10. Carruth's medal was Ireland's first ever gold medal in boxing, only a couple of hours after teammate Wayne McCullough had to settle for the silver in bantamweight. It was also the first Olympic gold medal for Ireland since Ronnie Delaney won the Men's 1500m event at the 1956 Olympic Games in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

. Within a few days of Carruth winning his Olympic medal the

Government of Ireland The Government of Ireland () is the executive (government), executive authority of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, headed by the , the head of government. The government – also known as the cabinet (government), cabinet – is composed of Mini ...

announced that Carruth has been instantly promoted to

sergeant Sergeant (Sgt) is a Military rank, rank in use by the armed forces of many countries. It is also a police rank in some police services. The alternative spelling, ''serjeant'', is used in The Rifles and in other units that draw their heritage f ...

within the

Irish Army The Irish Army () is the land component of the Defence Forces (Ireland), Defence Forces of Republic of Ireland, Ireland.The Defence Forces are made up of the Permanent Defence Forces – the standing branches – and the Reserve Defence Forces. ...

in recognition of his achievement at the Olympics. And, on the day of his return to Ireland, local pubs dropped the price of beer to that of 1956.

Professional boxing

Carruth turned professional in 1994 after taking leave from his job as a

soldier A soldier is a person who is a member of an army. A soldier can be a Conscription, conscripted or volunteer Enlisted rank, enlisted person, a non-commissioned officer, a warrant officer, or an Officer (armed forces), officer. Etymology The wo ...

in the

. He was trained by the former Irish boxing great Steve Collins. He had limited success as a professional, losing in both of his defining professional bouts, in 1997 against Mihai Leu for the WBO

Welterweight Welterweight is a weight class in combat sports. Originally the term ''welterweight'' was used only in boxing, but other combat sports like muay Thai, taekwondo, and mixed martial arts also use it for their own weight division system to classify th ...

title and in 2000 against Adrian Stone for the IBO

Light Middleweight Light middleweight, also known as junior middleweight or super welterweight,PeBoxRec/ref> is a weight class in boxing but also may include other combat sports. Boxing The light middleweight division (also known as junior middleweight in the Intern ...

title. He retired in 2000, after the loss to Stone, with a career professional record of 18-3-0.

Media

In 2006, he competed on the TV series '' Celebrity Jigs 'n' Reels''. Carruth was an expert boxing analyst for

RTÉ (; ; RTÉThe É in RTÉ is pronounced as an English E () and not an Irish É ()) is an Irish public service broadcaster. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, ...

's Olympic coverage in

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

and

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

. In 2020, Carruth appeared in the fourth season of the Irish edition of ''

Dancing with the Stars ''Strictly Come Dancing (widely known as Dancing with the Stars)'' is an international television franchise based on the format of the British TV series '' Strictly Come Dancing,'' itself a successor to the show ''Come Dancing'' (1950–1998) ...

''. He and his professional partner,

Karen Byrne Karen Byrne (born 30 May 1992) is an Irish dancer and choreographer. She is known as being a judge and, previously, a professional dancer on the Irish version of Dancing with the Stars. Early life Byrne was born in Ballyfermot in Dublin. She ...

, were eliminated on 3 February 2020.

Involvement in Gaelic games

During his short spell as senior Westmeath county football team manager,

Brendan Hackett Brendan Hackett (born 1960) is a Gaelic football manager, sports psychologist and former chief executive officer of Athletics Ireland. As of 2022, he was manager of Ballymun Kickhams. He previously managed the Longford, Offaly and Westmeat ...

appointed Carruth as masseur in 2009.
-

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Carruth, Michael 1967 births Living people AIBA World Boxing Championships medalists Boxers at the 1988 Summer Olympics Boxers at the 1992 Summer Olympics Boxers from Dublin (city) Irish Army soldiers Irish male boxers Medalists at the 1992 Summer Olympics Olympic boxers for Ireland Olympic gold medalists for Ireland Olympic medalists in boxing RTÉ Sports Person of the Year winners Sports masseurs Welterweight boxers Westmeath county football team non-playing personnel 20th-century Irish sportsmen