Jaya Kalsi Set for Youth Olympic Games in Dakar

On the eve of her 17th birthday, the call every young fighter waits for finally came through to Warwick teenager Jaya Kalsi.

Team GB wanted her for the 2026 Youth Olympic Games in Dakar. No trial, no maybe. She was in. For Kalsi, it felt less like a selection and more like the perfect birthday gift.

“It’s a great honour to represent Team GB and my country,” she said, already looking beyond the excitement to the scale of what comes next.

From Leamington gym to the world stage

In a few weeks, Kalsi will board a plane to Senegal for the biggest tournament of her career. The Games begin on 31 October, a date now ringed in red in the Kalsi household.

She has been sharpening her tools with Team GB in recent weeks, heavy sessions in the gym forming the backbone of a camp she says has gone “really well”. There is no easing into this level. No hiding place. That is exactly how she wants it.

Ranked third in the world in her age and weight bracket, and already a European gold medallist, the Sikh boxer will step into the 54kg division in Dakar. The names of her opponents remain unknown for now; the draw will be made on site next month.

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

A long-term plan, not a one-off trip

For Kalsi, Dakar is not a destination. It is a checkpoint.

She talks openly about the path she wants to carve: Youth Olympics now, then a place on the 2028 Olympic squad, another crack at the Games in 2032, and eventually the leap into the professional ranks.

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

There is no coyness, no attempt to play down her ambition. She wants gold in Senegal. She wants to come home with a Youth Olympic title and a clearer line of sight to the senior stage.

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

Built in Cleary’s, inspired at home

The journey began early. Seven years old, gloves too big, dreams even bigger.

While other children sampled sports as a hobby, Kalsi was already being nudged towards the ring by a father who adored boxing. She had tried swimming and karate, but the pull of the gym proved stronger.

“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 gym was Cleary Boxing Gym in Leamington Spa, where she has trained since childhood. It is there that the European gold was forged, the world ranking earned, the Youth Olympic call made possible.

Following a trail blazed by greats

Kalsi’s story sits within a wider one. As a Sikh fighter, she is part of a growing wave of British boxers from diverse backgrounds changing the face of the sport and providing new reference points for younger girls.

Her own reference points are clear. Irish great Katie Taylor, who recently closed the book on a glittering career as a three-time and two-weight undisputed champion, looms largest.

Taylor, Kalsi says, has been a “massive inspiration”, not just for her belts and accolades, but for the way she dragged women’s boxing into the mainstream and refused to let it slip back.

Then there is Mayweather, another of her father’s heroes, admired by Kalsi for his “hard work and dedication”.

“I look to achieve something like him in the future,” she said, fully aware of the scale of that target.

Dakar and beyond

In Senegal, she will not walk this road alone. Her mother will be there in the stands, just as she has been behind the scenes throughout, another constant presence in a life increasingly defined by training camps, weigh-ins and tournaments.

The stakes are clear. Dakar offers medals, of course, but also something less tangible and just as valuable: proof that a teenager from Warwick, moulded in a Leamington gym, can handle the pressure of a global stage.

Kalsi is not travelling for experience alone. She is going for gold – and to find out just how far this carefully mapped-out journey can really go.