Thursday, February 17, 2011

British fighter Julie Kitchen

Julie Kitchen pic Adam Gibbard
British Muay Thai fighter Julie Kitchen combines motherhood with an inspiring fighting career. Her record of  50 fights over the last 10 years counts 42 wins, 8 losses and has clocked up 22 belts ... so far. Kitchen has made huge strides in a relatively short career, about 8 years in total; seen by most experts as the most successful female fighter in the UK. She holds ten world titles across a range of sanctioning bodies and weights - usually in the mid-60 kgs range.

Wins
She defeated American Angela Parr, Spaniard Loly Munoz-Garcia, and New Zealand fighter Karen Lynch on the way but lost out to Germaine de Randamie - no shame there.

TV Coach
Her next move is as a TV coach on American series Enfusion. Kitchen will teach a team of fighters in a form of kickboxing - it's not on air yet but seems to be a mixture of superpro/ K1 rules but set in Thailand.

Parenting
Both her daughters train in boxing now too. It's really exciting to see new generations of women just taking up boxing as a right, without any drama or fears of prejudice. And to see that looking after your family doesn't have to mean an end to a professional career in such a demanding sport.




Do you know any other women continuing with elite-level sports while being a parent on the side?




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4 comments

carinamodella said...

she has a masculine body and very feminine face....lovely!

niamh said...

Yes, you can see how training sculpts your body when you compare the older pic of her with her daughters with that shot (taken in January).

Unknown said...

Another elete athele/mom woudl be the olympic swimmer Dara Torres. Cool post & thanks for your kind words on my blog!

niamh said...

@ John - Dana Torres, of course. I remember seeing amazing photos of her during the (last?) Olympics. Thanks for the tip!

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