Boxer Harry Garside opens up about how badly he’s struggling with his Olympics ‘bonk ban’ as he aims to win gold in Paris

Aussie gold medal boxing hope Harry Garside has opened up about why he put himself on a sex ban in the lead-up to the Paris Olympics – and how hard it’s been for him to stay on the straight and narrow.

The 26-year-old will be one of the favourites to take the top prize in the lightweight class in next month’s Games in France – and he’s making a big personal sacrifice to ensure he’s in top shape mentally and physically.

But it hasn’t been easy.

‘The first couple of weeks were pretty challenging,’ the boxer told Nova 100’s Jase & Lauren radio show on Thursday.

‘I think it’s like week four or five now. It’s been a while, so I’m sort of through it now, like your sort of so exhausted from training that you don’t really think about it too much.

‘But I’m sure, post-Olympics, there’ll be a bit of fun going on.’

Asked if he’s currently in a relationship, he replied, ‘I’m a single man, but I think it might be a pretty short performance after having a few months [of abstinence].’

Garside was then queried about why he slapped the sex ban on himself in the first place.

The Olympic bronze medallist has gone without sex for four or five weeks – and freely admits it’s been a very difficult process

‘You can get studies on both sides that agree and disagree [that abstinence improves athletes’ performance],’ he explained.

‘So I more so do it for just mind control. Like, we all have desires.

‘I’m cutting out coffee at the moment. We all want to drink coffee. We all want to go relieve ourselves and have some fun by ourselves.

‘But the more that I can withstand that sort of stuff and restrain myself, I think I just feel more powerful.’

Garside is far from the first athlete to attempt a sex ban in order to prepare for a big sporting event.

Garside (pictured left beating Layton McFerran for the Australian lightweight title in 2022) says the jury is out when it comes to the physical benefits of abstaining from sex 

The Melburnian is one of Australia’s medal hopes in Paris after he won gold at the Commonwealth Games in 2018 (pictured)

Aussie NRL star turned boxer Anthony Mundine abstained in 1998 in order to get an edge while playing for the Dragons in 1998, saying, ‘I think it is the ultimate test of a man to control his hormones, and I am prepared to do this to help my game and my club.’

Boxing legend Muhammad Ali was also rumoured to use the unusual tactic, and golf great Tiger Woods reportedly gave up sex to prepare for the Masters this year.

Garside recently weighed in on the use of so-called ‘anti-sex beds’ in the athletes village in Paris, with the Games adopting the small cardboard beds that were used at the Tokyo Olympics, where competitors were under an intimacy ban. 

‘The put in the no-humping beds,’ the fighter told Triple M earlier this month.

‘If you go over a certain weight, the bed collapses. They’re no-sex beds.’