Jaya Kalsi: Team GB Boxer Ready for Youth Olympic Games in Dakar

On the eve of her 17th birthday, the phone rang and changed everything for Jaya Kalsi.

The teenager from Warwick, who has been throwing punches since most children are still figuring out playground games, was told she had been selected to represent Team GB at the 2026 Youth Olympic Games in Dakar, Senegal. She called it “an amazing present to get”. It is more than that. It is the launchpad every young boxer spends lonely hours in the gym dreaming about.

From Leamington Spa to Dakar

The Games begin on 31 October. While most of her peers are thinking about college work or weekend plans, Kalsi is counting down the days to the highest-level competition of her career.

“I'm looking forward to it, it's a great honour to represent Team GB and my country,” she told BBC CWR, the excitement clear.

Recent weeks have been spent in camp with Team GB, sharpening the tools that have already taken her onto the world stage. The work, she says, has gone “really well”. No fuss. No drama. Just a teenager talking like a seasoned pro about a job that still feels bigger than her years.

Kalsi, a Sikh fighter ranked third in the world at her level and already a European gold medallist, will box in the 54kg category. The draw will be made once the team arrives in Senegal.

“The draw will happen when we're out there,” she said. “It will be an amazing experience.”

The opponents can wait. The intent cannot.

A teenager with a long-term plan

For Kalsi, Dakar is not the finish line. It is a checkpoint on a route she has mapped out with striking clarity.

She wants the Youth Olympic gold medal. She says it plainly. No soft landing, no caveats.

“I aim to make it to the top, I'm looking to hopefully get a place on the 2028 Olympic squad and hopefully the 2032 Olympics and then go pro after that,” she explained.

That is Los Angeles 2028, then Brisbane 2032, and then the professional ranks. A decade-long vision, laid out by someone who has not yet finished her A-levels.

This is not a sudden dream, either. It is the product of a childhood built around gyms and gloves.

A father’s influence, a gym’s foundation

Kalsi has been part of Cleary Boxing Gym in Leamington Spa since she was seven. While other children were learning to swim a length or perfect a karate kick, she was already slipping jabs and learning to move her head.

“I loved doing sports before that, I did swimming and karate but my dad, he was a massive fan of boxing so he got me into the sport,” she said.

“He looked up to Ricky Hatton and Floyd Mayweather, and he basically took me to the gym.”

That first walk into Cleary’s has turned into a pathway to the Youth Olympics. The gym has been her second home, her father the constant voice in the corner. The story is familiar in boxing: a parent’s passion passed down, a local gym providing structure and belief. What is different is the speed at which Kalsi has turned that foundation into international pedigree.

Standing on the shoulders of champions

Kalsi does not hide her inspirations. One name, in particular, stands out: Katie Taylor.

The Irish great, who recently ended her career as a three-time and two-weight undisputed champion, has become a landmark figure in women’s boxing. For Kalsi, she is more than a champion; she is a template.

Taylor, she said, has been a “massive inspiration”, a fighter whose impact on women’s boxing has opened doors for young talents like her.

She also looks to Floyd Mayweather, not just as the idol her father admired, but as an example of what relentless commitment can produce. His “hard work and dedication”, she says, drive her.

“I look to achieve something like him in the future,” she added.

Not copy. Not imitate. Achieve something like it. In her own way, in her own division, in her own time.

Dakar and beyond

When Kalsi boards the plane to Senegal, she will not be alone. Her mother will travel with her, another constant presence in a journey that has demanded early mornings, late nights and sacrifices that rarely make the highlight reels.

The stakes in Dakar are clear in her mind. She is not going for experience alone. She is going to win.

“I'm looking to bring back the Youth Olympic gold medal and get a step up,” she said.

One tournament. One medal. But for a 16-year-old from Warwick, it could be the first defining step towards the Olympic rings in 2028 and 2032, and a professional career that her idols once carved out.

Now it is her turn to chase that path, under the lights of Dakar, with the gloves on and the world watching.