Pittsburgh boxers heading to Olympic Team Trials
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Two Pittsburgh amateur boxers are just days away from making history. The young national champions qualified for the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials for boxing in Louisiana.
Years of hard work in the ring are paying off for two Pittsburgh boxers with Team 412. Sonny Taylor and Trinity Burke will take a swing at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials for boxing. They'll head to Lafayette, Louisiana, on Friday. The trials start Monday.
"I'm ecstatic. It just goes to show that whenever you work hard, the things that you work hard for, they'll come to fruition," said Delbert "Sonny" Taylor.
"When I started boxing, I thought it would be cool to try and do that," said Trinity Burke.
"It's pretty hard, but it's going to be worth it," Burke said.
Taylor won a junior Olympics national title and Burke is a two-time national champion.
Inside 3rd Avenue Boxing Gym Downtown, Pittsburgh native and world champion boxer Paul Spadafora has been helping the two talented boxers prepare for the Olympic trials.
"Expect to win it, expect to win it. I think highly of them. They work hard, they're here every day. They're always busy, they're always fighting, they're always doing the right thing," Spadafora said.
For Team 412 head coach James Hoy, it's his proudest moment. He says this is a reflection of the Pittsburgh boxing community.
"It's a historic thing here in Pittsburgh to have two kids from the same gym and to have a male and a female qualify for the United States Olympic Trials," Hoy said.
"It's indescribable, it really is because for -- and this is selfish but, for the rest of my life, I can say I coached two kids who made it to the Olympic trials, and that's for an amateur athlete, that's the pinnacle of competition," Hoy added.
While Taylor and Burke are in Louisiana for a week fighting for a spot on Team USA, six other Team 412 boxers ranging in age from 13 to 17 will be there competing in the National Championships.