'I'm scared of spiders..and not winning gold at the Olympics' PAUL MARTIN'S BIG SATURDAY INTERVIEW: KATIE TAYLOR OPENS HER HEART ON AMAZING LIFESTYLE.

Byline: PAUL MARTIN

A FEW weeks ago I strolled into a boxing gym in Bray and watched what I thought to be a young lad knocking hells bells out of another guy.

The lad was fast, dynamic, strong and super fit - clearly a cut above his opponent.

The other poor fellow had a bleeding nose, a swollen eye and looked to be on the verge of collapsing on to the canvas as another flurry of punches waded in.

In the corner of the ring were two bloodstained towels where he had mopped up his wounds between rounds in a desperate bid to survive a few more minutes.

I turned to one of the amateurs watching and declared: "That guy has incredible power - he'll go far."

The boxer broke into a broad smile: "That guy is actually a girl - it's Katie Taylor."

Who could have guessed that Ireland's biggest chance of a gold medal at the 2012 Olympics would be a slender, quiet Bray girl who confesses to "being afraid of everything - spiders, fairground rides, the lot!"

Who could have guessed that our biggest medal hope wouldn't be making a splash in the swimming or a dashing to glory on the track, but punching, fighting and scrapping their way to greatness in the boxing ring?

But then there's nothing normal about Katie as I find out when she invites me to meet her for coffee in a local cafe in the seaside town.

If you are in any doubt, just stick her name into YouTube where you will see a clip of her scoring a 40-yard rocket into the top corner for the Irish ladies football team. That's what she does in her spare time, by the way.

Over the past few days she's been bombarded with interview requests from newspaper and magazine, which she's politely declined to concentrate on her sport. "She's doing only this one because we have to keep the focus on what's important. The phone hasn't stopped in the last few days," her father and coach Pete tells me later.

It's been quite a fortnight for Katie who has just pocketed her fourth European title on the trot and scored her 38th straight win. Pete joins us as she pulls up a chair and orders a coffee and apple juice as customers and passers-by dash over to offer their congratulations to Katie on her latest title and shake her hand.

I sense this will be only the start of the hype and madness around her that will inevitably explode into a frenzy when she hits the Olympic trail. She will be our biggest Olympic story in 2012, mark my words.

She cuts a lean figure but looks every bit the athlete, dressed in a neat jacket with a track-suit top underneath. She may be in the most brutal of sports but she is strikingly pretty with show-stopper eyes.

It's been a bitter-sweet fortnight for her. She may have stormed to glory in the European Championships, but she was rocked by the suicide death of Darren Sutherland in the middle of the tournament.

"It's absolutely terrible," she says, shaking her head slowly and looking visibly distraught.

"I was only talking to him on Facebook a few days before it happened. He was wishing me luck and saying how great it was that women's boxing had been allowed into the olympics.

"I just feel so sad that it went that way, that he felt he had to do that. His poor mum and dad. How would you even start to cope with that? "It just puts everything into perspective. At the end of the day boxing is just a sport - life is far more important."

It's clear Katie has her head firmly screwed on.

She still lives with her parents on a council estate in Bray. "I love it there - dad has asked us if we wanted to move in the past but I feel totally comfortable and happy where we are," she says. And despite the widespread attention she now receives wherever she roams in Ireland she's managed to keep her feet firmly on the ground.

She doesn't drink, smoke or do the nightclub scene. "Unless it's a night out with my friends which I do every now and again," she adds. "But I never drink."

Then, out of the blue, she tells me: "I'm a Christian. God is a big part of my life and he's the reason that I have managed to achieve what I have. It's part of his plan for me."

How often does she go to church? "Every Sunday. It's very important to me. But I'm not one of these people who just sits around reading the bible from cover to cover all the time. I think you have to go out there and live your life and enjoy it and my relationship with God allows me to do that."

Could there be a better role model for our young children in Ireland? "Ah thanks," she says, bursting into a giggle. "That's a lot of pressure though! I'd like to think that kids can look up to me but everyone has the flaws."

With her around-the-clock training regime and single-minded desire to attain Olympic glory Katie's priorities are clearly different to those of normal girls her age.

She confesses, for example, that she gets plenty of attention from guys but isn't interested in a relationship."It would just be too much with all the training and all," she explains. "I don't have a boyfriend and I don't really want one yet. It's always nice to have the odd bit of attention though." I turn to her dad and ask how he would feel if she returned home one day to say she'd met the man of her dreams. "I'd ask her if she's happy," he says, pausing for a moment. "Then I'd say - well then go for it!

"You have to allow your kids to grow up and be themselves. People always think I'm like the dad of the Williams sisters or something and controlling their every move. "But I have to say I allow Katie to be herself and she's never given me any trouble at all."

Katie is a self-confessed tomboy who has little time for the trimmings and lavishes that fame and success can throw up. She is constantly bombarded with offers to dressup for female lifestyle and celebrity maga-zines who are desperate to give her a makeover.

"They are trying to make me something that I'm not," she explains. "So I don't really do anything like that. I'm much happier in my track suit to be honest. That's the real me. I have dressed up for the odd thing like for black tie events where you have to put on a dress. But I'd love Adidas to design me a tuxedo tracksuit or something - with the stripes and all," Katie says giggling.

I ask her what scares her and her dad pitches in from across the table: "Everything! She really hates spiders most of all."

Surely the world's toughest female boxer couldn't be floored by a mere creepy crawly? "It's true," Katie confesses. "I can't stand spiders. I'm also scared of fairground rides - I hate them." Does getting in the ring scare her? "It doesn't," she says. "It's more nerves. I get very nervous before a fight and then it all disappears as soon as the bell rings." Not surprisingly, the thing that scares her more than anything of those things is failure. "Not getting the Olympic gold, that thought really scares me," she say. "That's what I want more than anything in the world right now."

Katie zips up her jacket and prepares to dash off for a rare day of "chilling out" and doing '"normal things". "That means eating chocolate and watching Scrubs," she explains.

Then she will dash off to join the Irish ladies football team, she could have turned pro at that too, for an international soccer match.

As Katie speeds off into the sunshine it's clear that for now at least, all that glitters really is gold for Ireland's most exciting sports star.

CAPTION(S):

KNOCK-OUT Stunning out of ring GOALDEN GIRL Katie also plays soccer for Ireland GLOVE STORY Katie Taylor says that boyfriends are off limits due to her love for boxing JUST THE JAB Katie (blue) in action at last year's Women's World Championship