12-Year-Old Indigenous Boxer Leela Lord Aims for Olympics After AIS Training Camp

At just 12 years old, Alice Springs boxer Leela Lord already has her sights set on the Olympic Games.

The young Arrernte athlete has returned from Canberra after training at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) as part of a national Indigenous boxing development camp.

Participants are normally aged 15 and over, but Leela was granted an exemption to take part alongside older boxers.

'A bigger passion' for boxing

Leela began training as a six-year-old and had her first fight at nine.

Back home at Arrernte Community Boxing Academy, freshly inspired by the development camp, she was straight back into training.

"I have a bigger passion for it," Leela said.

"It's great to see my own people doing boxing … and it's just cool to see elite athletes out there."

She said the week involved advanced strength and conditioning work and gave her the chance to train alongside Indigenous athletes from around Australia.

Her next challenge is simply finding opponents.

"I want to have more fights because I don't really get fights here because of my age and weight and size," she said.

Standing out among older athletes

Leela's father Jason Lord, himself a former boxer and now a coach at the family-run academy, travelled to Canberra as one of the camp's trainers.

He said Leela was considered for the best female boxer award after keeping pace with athletes years older than her.

"She did everything that the older kids were doing," he said.

"There's adults in there boxing. She stuck with them."

Mr Lord, who was involved in judging, said he was proud of his daughter but did not feel comfortable being involved in awarding the honour to his own daughter, so he withdrew her nomination.

He was later voted the camp's best trainer by the participating boxers.

More than fighting

Back in Alice Springs, Jason Lord coaches alongside his family at the academy, where training ranges from competitive boxing to general fitness.

The gym also attracts people using boxing to rebuild their strength and confidence, including a former professional boxer now training there as part of his rehabilitation from a stroke.

For Leela, boxing remains both a family tradition and an increasingly serious ambition.

"Maybe that's someone's goal — to be better than they are right now," she said.

"Or to go to AIS like I did."