Taylor will fight in the 60 kilogram category, the category in which she made history in at London by becoming one of the first female Olympic boxing champions.

The 28-year-old from Bray is one of the most decorated female boxers in history, having also won four World Championship gold medals and six European Championship titles. 

She will be joined by fellows boxers Michaela Walsh and Ciara Smith,in the 54kg and 51kg categories respectively, and male freestyle wrestlers Alex Dolly and Soslan Tuaev, who will participate in the 84kg and 74kg classes respectively.

"I was delighted to see our selections get underway, we have looked forward to this day for some time," said Patrick Hickey, President of the OCI and also head of the European Olympic Committees, and the man widely credited with being the architect of the European Games. 

"It is great to see that first on the list is our current Olympic champion, world champion and European champion Katie Taylor.

"Congratulations to the first five athletes selected and to the sports of boxing and wrestling.

"I look forward to many more selections in the coming months."

Patrick Hickey, President of the Olympic Council of Ireland, congratulated the athletes selected to represent the country in the European Games at Baku 2015 ©Getty Images







TheEuropean Games are scheduled to take place in Azerbaijan's capital from June 12 to 28.

"I very much welcome the first selections and we hope that they are the first of many," Dermot Henihan, Chef de Mission for the Baku 2015 European Games, added:

"To date we have 43 quota places achieved in seven sports and we predict that we will have in the region of 65 athletes from 12 to 13 sports in our final team.

"Congratulations to Katie, Michala, Ciara, Alex and Soslan.

"You are now a part of the history of Team Ireland's participation in the European Games by being the first ever athletes selected."

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