Michael O'Reilly (born 30 March 1993) is an Irish

amateur boxer An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, self-taught, user-generated, DIY, and hobbyist. History ...

from

Portlaoise Portlaoise ( ), or Port Laoise (), is the county town of County Laois, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Midland Region, Ireland, South Midlands in the province of Leinster. Portlaoise was the fastest growing of the top 20 largest town ...

Career

O'Reilly is part of Portlaoise Boxing Club. He competes at

middleweight Middleweight is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing Professional In professional boxing, the middleweight division is contested above and up to . Early boxing history is less than exact, but the middleweight designation seems to have beg ...

. O'Reilly's first major international tournament was the

2015 European Games The 1st European Games (), also known as the 2015 European Games or Baku 2015 (), were the inaugural edition of the European Games, an international multi-sport event for athletes representing the National Olympic Committees (NOCs) of the Europe ...

Baku Baku (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Azerbaijan, largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and in the Caucasus region. Baku is below sea level, which makes it the List of capital ci ...

, where he won the gold medal by beating local favourite Xaybula Musalov in the final. That qualified O'Reilly for the

2015 AIBA World Boxing Championships The 2015 AIBA World Boxing Championships was held at the Ali Bin Hamad Al Attiya Arena in Doha, Qatar from 5 to 18 October 2015. This was a qualifying tournament for the 2016 Summer Olympics. Opening ceremony World pro boxing champions Mike Tys ...

where he won bronze. In 2016, O'Reilly qualified to represent

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

for the

Rio Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

at the AIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Baku. On 4 August 2016, on the eve of the Olympics Opening Ceremony, O'Reilly was suspended after a sample provided prior to his travel to Rio tested positive for a banned substance. On 9 August O'Reilly released a statement in which he admitted unintentionally taking a banned supplement prior to the Games.

References

1993 births Living people AIBA World Boxing Championships medalists Boxers at the 2015 European Games European Games medalists in boxing European Games gold medalists for Ireland Doping cases in boxing Irish sportspeople in doping cases Irish male boxers Boxers from County Laois Middleweight boxers People from Portlaoise 21st-century Irish sportsmen {{Ireland-boxing-bio-stub