Michael Roche walked off the sandy beach where he has been training near Sydney last Tuesday and thought, from that moment, he would forever see beaches in a different light. The routine since he arrived in Australia two weeks before the rest of the Irish team has been a combination of seamless training and pleasant fatigue. A different routine, the drag of the sand and the warm climate has nestled the Cork man into his Olympic preparations without fuss or anxiety.

"I'm up every morning and on the beach at 7.30. I'll never look at a beach the same way. It's like an Irish summer here. The Aussies are cold but it's just perfect for training," he says.

"It's a lot tougher. But now the stiffness has gone out of the training. We've begun to settle now."

Roche, a light middleweight, makes an unwelcome mark on Irish Olympic history. For the first time he alone comprises the Irish boxing team for an Olympic games. The last time the games were held in Australia - Melbourne in 1956 - seven boxers travelled. Four of them, welterweight Fred Teidt (silver), lightweight Anthony Byrne, bantamweight Freddie Gilroy and flyweight John Cauldwell (all bronze) came back with medals to add to the gold of Ronnie Delany in the 1500 metres. It was the most lucrative Olympics in Irish history.

Now on its knees, boxing has accounted for more Olympic medals than any other Irish sport, but, following the break-up of the former Soviet Union, there are more European countries competing for the same slice of the Olympic cake. The qualification system has become ruthlessly difficult.

In tandem, the lure of professionalism has cherry-picked the amateur boxers who offer promoters the best chance of conversion to the fighting game. Barcelona silver medallist Wayne McCullough is one of just a few who was able to make the leap. Gold medallist Michael Carruth was not.

Roche, however, sees little other than his first fight in Sydney. The draw will not be made until the day of the opening ceremony and, like the rest of the fighters in the tournament, he expects the first round to be the toughest.

"The initial hard part is the first fight. That's a confidence fight," he says. "The world number one is Romanian. The other strong fighters will come from Germany, America and Cuba. The guy who boxed Carruth in 1992, Juan Hernandez, well he's moved up to light middleweight.

"It would be unbelievable if we met in the final. He'd be coming out with daggers and hatchets. He's just trying to win the gold medal, having lost two finals." Hernandez was also a silver medallist at the Atlanta games.

At 28 years of age, the Cork man from the Sunnyside club knows his range and is comfortable that he has the skills and the boxing technique to navigate his way around the controversial marking system used at the Olympics.

It is the same one that shamefully deprived Roy Jones Junior of a light middleweight gold medal in Seoul in 1988. In Roche's corner is Kieran Joyce, who boxed for Ireland at Los Angeles and Seoul. Joyce knows his way around Olympic boxing rings.

"My style suits the system," says Roche. "It is a hit-and-not-be-hit type of style. You don't score with body punches, they're just to wear you down. You just score with head punches, which is silly really," he says.

"I wouldn't be thinking too much about things like that, the scoring or the politics involved . . . I wouldn't get caught up in all of that. If it is going to happen, it will happen. I'm happy with this system."

Roche has been one of the lucky fighters in Irish sport. His job with Warner Lambert has opened his eyes to the concept of benign employment. The company actually wanted him to take time off to win the Irish championship before suggesting that he train full-time for the Olympics.

In essence, they have become his patron and he has been able to box like, well, a Cuban, since January. It wasn't until March at a qualification competition in Halle, Germany that he knew he would be travelling to the Olympics

"It (the attitude of his employers) has made all the difference," say Roche. "The government aren't spending money on us, on boxing. They put us in a training camp two weeks before a big competition. It's a joke."

This year, in the initial government allocation of money for individuals, boxing received a total of £90,400. Athletics got £302,400, canoeing £92,000, rowing £170,000, sailing £89,000 and wheelchair sports £84,800.

Nearing the end of his career, Roche hopes Sydney will be a high point for both himself and his country, and hopefully not the last time Ireland will have a boxer qualified for the Olympics. Roche looks for comfort to boxers in the past who have travelled unheralded to Olympic games and have come back with garlands around their necks. Carruth in 1992 exceeded all expectations. From such triumphs Roche draws confidence.

"I'm quite confident. One aspect is getting luck in the draw. I don't know all of the opponents. The first fight you don't know what to expect," he says.

"It's a bigger arena, more people."

"Is it hard ?" he asks. Then pauses. "I'll tell you on the night."