Greentree dreams the possible dream

The words Emma-Sue Greentree summons to explain why she’s adamant her Olympic and Commonwealth Games dreams will finish with gold medals draped around her neck are as sharp, powerful and precise as the punches she’d just unleashed on an unfortunate boxing bag.

Greentree, ranked No.3 in the world in the women’s 75kg category, is currently in Brazil for the World Cup Boxing event in Foz do Iguaçu, the city which is better know as a launching pad for tourists wanting to visit the glorious Iguaçu Water Falls.

The World Cup Boxing series of tournaments will culminate with the Finals in Uzbekistan this November. And while the 27-year-old New South Wales Institute of Sport  (NSWIS) scholarship holder is focussed on the battles at hand, after all, Greentree is the competition’s defending champion, she’s happy to cast her mind forward to July’s Glasgow’s Commonwealth Games and then the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.

“It’s massive,” said Greentree of LA. “Every athlete dreams of going to the Olympics and mine is no different. “Following my sister’s [Olympic] footsteps and trying to get one up on her . . . well, I want to get two up on her because I want to get the gold . . . drives every training session because I want to get gold at the Olympics.”

Greentree’s sister Belinda [Wright/pictured below, a softballer,] was presented with the bronze medal at the Beijing Olympics in 2012, and the feat made an indelible impression on the-then 13-year-old Greentree, who was a super-sporty kid loving life on the Central Coast.

“I was doing Track and Field at the time and always writing ‘I want to be an Olympian, and I want to do this and that.’ To watch my sister go out and achieve that and come home with a medal . . . I want to be able to do that myself.

“For my sister to do that and pave the way for me, it’s just been an incredible journey. I found boxing at 17 instead of earlier in life, but I’m still achieving massive things. It’s cool.”

And it’s also cool that after some amazing performance – which includes Greentree’s effort to take at the ‘champion’s’ title from last November’s World Boxing Cup Final held in India, allied with the silver she captured two months ago at the International Strandja Tournament in Bulgaria – she’s on the verge of being a big hit at Glasgow and Los Angeles.

When quizzed, the fighter who boasts 37 victories (nine via KO), conceded it’s not lost on her that, all going well, she could create Australian sporting history by becoming the nation’s first Olympic boxing champion.

“I’m currently ranked No.3 in the world for amateurs in the 75 kilo division, ” said Greentree, who trains in the NSWIS gymnasium under the supervision of Strength & Conditioning coach Liam Quinn. “So [LA] is two years away and you can do  a lot in two years. To become Australia’s first gold medallist in boxing, that would be unreal  . . . crazy.”

Greentree’s ‘gold fever’ is galvanised by some recent ‘bronzed Aussie’ performances at the Olympics. Harry Garside left the Tokyo Games in 2020 with the bronze, and in the last Games in Paris two-years-ago, Charlie Senior joined Caitlin Parker in seizing bronze.

It isn’t lost on Greentree that Parker, from Perth, became the first Australian female boxer to win an Olympic medal. She believes Parker’s performance reflects the inroads Aussie women are making in the sport.

“Watching us at the last world championships the girls won three medals: a gold, bronze and silver,” she said with unmistakable pride. “And to have women leading the way is pretty cool.

“Australia, we’re treading on stepping stones, but we’re absolutely coming up in the world.”

As for Glasgow, Greentree has no doubt she can return from what is often described as the world’s ‘friendliest’ city a true blue winner.

“Commonwealth Games is going to be incredible, obviously the goal for me is to medal – and get a gold medal,” she smiled. “And I do believe I can achieve that.

“The Commonwealth Games is a pinnacle event for all athletes; I’ve dreamed of competing in it since I was a little kid.

“If I win gold medal  . . . [no,] when I get  a gold medal at the Comm Games . . . it’s going to tell me I deserve to  be here. I’ve done the work, my team has done it, and we can definitely get the gold medal at the Olympics, too!”

The commitment and courage Greentree – who has Diabetes and is employed as a Special and Inclusive Education Teacher’s Aide for the NSW Department of Education, – continually displays in the gym and ring never ceases to impress her Central Coast-based trainer, Dean Robinson.

As Greentree prepares to take on the world’s best, Robinson said the main priority is for her to perform well and enjoy what she’s doing. He says it seems whenever his charge is in that frame of mind she gets great results.

“She’s improving all the time, she’s dedicated,” said Robinson, who trained 2004 Olympian and world title contender Jamie Pittman to professional title fights.

“Being a Type 1 Diabetic, so to battle that and be a High Performance athlete is pretty remarkable. [As for her boxing] we get better every time we go out,  and that’s very impressive – she’s a very, very good style of an athlete.

“[She is similar to Pittman in] the dedication and the discipline to achieve what they want. They’re two athletes who live their sport  . . . the easiest way to [explain] that is it’s the last thing they think about when they shut their eyes of a night and it’s the first thing they think about when they open them in the morning.”

Daniel Lane, NSWIS

Main Photo: Rachel Tingey, NSWIS