Lucy O’Connor

Lucy O’Connor joined the Royal Navy as a Warfare Officer in 2001 having completed a degree in Psychology on a Naval scholarship. Completing her first complement billet as Officer of the Watch on HMS NOTTINGHAM, she was augmented as part of the Tactical PsyOps Team in Basra, Iraq for an operational tour in 2005. Early in her career she learned to box to improve fitness but this soon turned into a serious hobby.

Keen to compete in the sport,  she was prevented from doing so as remarkably in 2006 women’s amateur boxing was banned in the UK. Determined to achieve equality, Lucy joined her fellow female boxing enthusiasts and lobbied the national governing body and parliament for the right to compete. Such a right was granted shortly afterwards and Lucy quickly advanced in the sport, retiring at the age of 34 having been the first women’s Great Britain Boxing Captain, won five national championship titles, become the first English European gold medallist and having been ranked in the top five in the world at 3 different weights. Whilst continuing her Naval career as a Training Manager, Lucy established a charity boxing gym, Poseidon ABC, with her husband Stuart in 2013 which grows year on year currently with 300+ members and 12 coaches.

When she gets the time, Lucy is also a keen golfer offering a slightly more sedate contrast to boxing.