In 2003 Tom was stealing cars in Liverpool… now he is Team GB's boxing captain

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UPDATED:

20:38 GMT, 25 July 2012

Changed man: Tom Stalker has gone from a life of crime to the brink of Olympic boxing in nine years

Tom Stalker knew his life was about to change when he heard the police dogs and saw the helicopter but he had no idea how much.

His problem was the tall grass. Stalker and his mate had ditched the stolen Range Rover in an industrial estate near Southport and were trying to get away on foot across a field.

‘The whole thing was just awful,’ he says. ‘It was a nightmare. We’d taken the car in Southport and a police car turned up. I guess we didn’t really think because we didn’t stop and then there was a chase.

‘We tried to get away by leaving the car and running across the field but it was awful. I kept falling over in the grass and couldn’t get away. I just kept tripping. There were police on both sides of the field and dogs and a helicopter. It was bad.

‘The feeling was horrible. When they got me and I was taken in I thought I was finished.’

That was in 2003; one year after he
started taking cars at a rate of two a week. Today, this 28-year-old
from one of the most deprived parts of Liverpool is the captain of Team
GB’s best ever boxing squad and is the world’s No 1 amateur fighter at
light-welterweight.

He is a southpaw like his idol, Joe
Calzaghe, and a slick technician who isn’t afraid to manoeuvre his lanky
frame inside and have a tear-up. But he was the boy who ‘left school
without passing a single exam’ at 16 and knows where he would most
likely be if it wasn’t for an unexpected sentence that kick-started an
extraordinary string of events.

‘The judge saved me that day,’ Stalker says. ‘He said I was lucky it was my first offence and didn’t send me down. I was so lucky.’

He isn’t just talking about his day in court. ‘It was my turning point,’ he says. ‘So much changed in one year. I mean, I was in a mess.

‘I was happy-go-lucky in school. I
always went but I was no good. I never got expelled or got in real
trouble but I didn’t pass one exam so I left at 16 (in 2000).

‘People
don’t get what that’s like. You leave with nothing, you know You get
out of school and you’re like, “What am I meant to do now” I know it’s
what everyone says, but I was bored. I used to look out my window and be
angry inside because I didn’t have anything to do.

‘I
started hanging around in Huyton — where I’m from — with these mates
I’d had years before and after a while I started doing the stuff they
were doing.’

Sometimes it was drugs and quite often it was taking cars.

Inspiration: Stalker transformed his ways after the passing of his grandmother

‘I’d
take a car and you’d get this buzz,’ Stalker says. ‘I’m ashamed to say
it, but at the time it was exciting and I didn’t have that. We’d sell
them and then go out on the weekend, do drugs and whatever. I’d never
been caught until I took the Range Rover.

‘It shook me up. That was a let-off. But it was just after, when my nan died, that I really started thinking.

‘I was really close with my nan — she had 21 grandkids but I was probably the closest to her. Before she died I didn’t go see her as much as I should have, because I was doing bad stuff.

‘If I’d gone round she would have known — she would have had the instinct to know I was doing things.

‘I will never forget the funeral. I decided I was not going that way any more. I didn’t want to be that sort of person. I wasn’t brought up like that, my nan would have hated seeing me that way.’

One of his first steps was to follow his two younger brothers to the local gym.

Skipper: Stalker will lead the British boxing team at the London Games

‘They took up boxing about six months
before me,’ he says. ‘I only had my first fight when I was about 19. For
a year I couldn’t throw a punch — honestly, I was terrible — but I
loved being in the gym. All of a sudden you have something to go for in
life, you know’

His focus was about to be sharpened by the birth of his first daughter later that year. ‘That was it,’ he says. ‘Changed man. I was on my way before and having Ellie Louise with Rachel (his girlfriend of 11 years) was another reason to behave. We had a second daughter (Scarlett) this year and I just feel so happy — I don’t have any of that anger inside now.’

He adds: ‘Sometimes I can’t believe all the stuff that happened in 2003 — or what’s happened since.’

Rather a lot has happened. A World Championship bronze medal in 2011 was preceded by a European Union Championship gold, two European Championship silvers and a gold at the 2010 Commonwealth Games. Rob McCracken, the team’s performance director, calls him ‘the perfect role model’.

Not so long ago, he was giving a talk to MPs about how boxing changed his life. Usually it’s children he addresses. ‘Sometimes I think about what could have happened to me,’ he says. ‘I could be in jail. I know a few people who are. It’s so weird that all those things happened so close to each other and now I’m going for an Olympic gold medal.’

Fate ‘I’d feel silly saying it’s destiny for me to win gold, although everything that’s happened has started me believing in fate and all that. I just desperately hope I win, but I know deep down it’s an achievement getting this far.’

That’s some understatement.