Harry Garside reveals secret poetry talent ahead of hunt for gold at Paris Olympics

Australian boxing star Harry Garside has revealed his secret talent for poetry while opening up on the road to the Paris Olympics. Appearing on The Project to speak about his preparation for next year’s games, Mr Garside’s linguistic side was exposed by co-host Sam Taunton, who said he spotted the boxer writing poetry on an ad break during another episode of the show. The boxer accepted an offer to read his poetry on live television, choosing a poem which spoke about his drive for success. “When your heart is pure, the universe will always ensure you get the outcome you desire, so you can inspire the rest of the population, most importantly, the younger generation to step into their power, so their golden hour ends up being timeless instead of being lifeless,” he read. On top of unveiling his poetry, Mr Garside also revealed that he had aspirations to try stand up comedy. Initially intending to do a show in November, he said training for Olympic qualifiers forced him to postpone his plans til February next year. “I’ve got a bit of content but I’ve still got to fine tune it, maybe with yourself [Taunton] or someone like Peter Hellyer,” he joked. Mr Garside secured his spot in the upcoming event on Saturday when his Fijian opponent withdrew on the morning of their qualifying fight, gifting him an easy passage to the Games. After winning bronze at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Mr Garside has made it no secret that he’s going after Australia’s first Olympic gold medal in boxing, competing in the lightweight division of the sport. He had his own theory about why the country had never achieved gold despite turning out some incredible boxers. “I think the difference between professional boxing and amateur boxing they’re almost two different sports right?” he said. “Professional boxing is a bit longer, and we’ve had many amazing fighters but amateur boxing, the Kazakhs, Uzbeks, the Soviets the Cubans, they’re amazing amateur boxers and they’re really hard to beat over three rounds and I think that’s why Australia hasn’t had much success.” Despite it never being achieved before, Mr Garside said he had confidence in his team going into the Games. “I think we’ve got an amazing team, we’ve got 11 other athletes and I think every one of them is capable of a medal chance,” he said.