DALEY’S HEARTBREAK
Adams and Heath claim two more golds for Britain but Tom’s dream dies
NICOLA ADAMS was once hailed as a trailblazer. She was a pioneer. She was the one who won the first women’s boxing gold medal in Olympic history.
She has moved way beyond being a symbol of something now, though, and when she retained her Olympic title yesterday she laid claim to being the best amateur boxer this country has ever produced.
No British fighter has won back-to-back Olympic golds since Harry Mallin in 1920 and 1924 but, when Adams outclassed France’s Sarah Ourahmoune in their flyweight final in Pavilion 6 at Riocentro last night, she wrote her name even larger into the history books of British boxing.
Adams is now Commonwealth, European, world and double Olympic champion. It is quite a roll-call. Little wonder that many had suggested her as a candidate to carry the Union Jack into the Maracana a fortnight ago.
If she fights on to the next Olympic Games in Tokyo 2020, she will be the favourite to land the honour for those Games too.
Adams said after yesterday’s fight that she is still undecided about whether or not to retire.
She is said to be considering a career in acting but she is so dominant in her sport that it is going to be hard for her to walk away.
She is intending to take a holiday and make her decision at leisure. It is also possible that she will turn professional and try to grow that side of the sport.
‘The gold rush continues,’ said Adams, after she had won Great Britain’s 26th gold of these extraordinary Olympic Games.
‘I can’t believe it — I am now officially our most accomplished amateur boxer ever and it is such an amazing feeling. It is well up there compared with London 2012. They are both on the same level. It takes a lot to win
an Olympic medal and I would just like to thank everybody.’
Adams, who had beaten London 2012 final opponent Ren Cancan in the semifinal, started confidently against Ourahmoune and won the first two rounds. The Frenchwoman pressed forward relentlessly but Adams picked her off with her superior skills and seemed to be cruising to victory.
But the judges surprisingly awarded Ourahmoune the third round and, knowing she was behind on the scorecards, she threw everything at Adams in the fourth and final round.
Adams landed some shots too and hung on to win that last round and the gold medal. ‘I thought I had done enough to win,’ said Adams afterwards.
Adams, whose victory at London 2012 not only helped to bring women’s boxing into the mainstream in Britain but was one of the catalysts for empowering the Women in Sport movement which has grown and grown in recent years, began to weep on the podium here, which surprised many who have never seen her break down so tearfully before.
‘It was very emotional for me,’ said Adams. ‘I couldn’t tell you the last time I cried but I have had a shoulder operation and an ankle injury and a lot of things to overcome since London and I just started thinking about all that when I was standing up on the podium.
‘Winning gold in London completely changed my life. I am still the same person but it got me invited to movie premieres and I met the Queen. It has been a balancing act to make sure I have time to do stuff like that and my boxing does not suffer.’ At that point, someone suggested Adams might be made a Dame. She laughed.
‘Dame Nicola Adams would go down a million,’ she said. ‘I like to break down barriers and create new challenges for myself and I will go away now and think what to do next.’
Adams, 33, from Leeds, joined the remarkable roll-call of Yorkshire athletes who have triumphed at these games and added her name to those of the Brownlee brothers, Jack Laugher, Andrew Triggs-Hodge, Ed Clancy, Jessica Ennis-Hill, Zoe Lee, Katy Marchant and Nile Wilson, who have all won medals.
Her victory is the highlight of an uneven Olympic competition for British boxing so far, although it is possible it may now end with a double gold flourish with Joe Joyce boxing today in the final of the super-heavyweight category.
This, though, was all about Adams. There was an outpouring of support for her after her achievement, which emphasised the fact that she has become an icon of women’s sport, in particular, and sport in general in Britain.
Adams has retained all the enthusiasm and dedication that made her such a favourite during the London Games and winning back-to-back golds has established her in the pantheon of British boxing.
When women’s boxing was first included in the summer Games in 2012, that kind of distinction seemed a long, long way away.
But Adams, the pathfinder, the historymaker and the supremely accomplished boxer has bridged the gap.