Gerry Hussey has the secret of sporting success

GLENAMADDY’S Gerry Hussey believes most of his neighbours have no idea what he does for a living. But if you’re a professional athlete the chances are you’ll know exactly what the 38-year-old from Parkroe has been doing for sport on an international level over the past 14 years or so.
Gerry, the middle of John and Elizabeth’s eight children, runs a performance consultancy in Dublin, where he has been supporting a host of world class athletes from New Zealand’s All Blacks to Irish golfer Shane Lowry.
He’s perhaps best known for his work with the Irish Amateur Boxing Association’s high performance unit, having worked with them since the Beijing Olympics back in 2008. While this year’s implosion of boxers at the Rio Games wasn’t part of the plan, Gerry is philosophical about the experience.
“When you look back at the fights of Paddy Barnes, Michael Conlon and Katie Taylor, they all won despite the verdict of the judges so that’s three medals that were won, but we still came home empty handed so you have to be as humble in defeat as in victory,” he said.
“We achieved so much in Beijing and London, and Rio should have gone the same way, but it didn’t. There were a lot of reasons for that but no excuses. When we came back from London we didn’t dwell on our success, nor will we waste energy on defeat, so now is the time to start afresh and develop a new plan for the next four years.”