The one lesson I’ve learned from life

Olympian Nicola Adams

Nicola adams, 34, was the first female to become an olympic boxing champion. Now with two olympic golds she lives in leeds and san Francisco.

DON’T LET SEXISM GET IN YOUR WAY

My MuM, Dee, taught me to believe in myself from a young age.

I grew up admiring how she dealt with everything — she juggled several jobs with studying, and found the courage to leave her abusive marriage to my dad when I was 11.

I discovered boxing by accident. One day when I was 12, Mum was due to go to an aerobics class and our babysitter cancelled, so she had to take my brother and I to the gym with her. I was fascinated by the boxing ring. The coach, Steve Franks, asked me if I wanted to hit some pads and I was hooked.

Steve taught me never to let anyone stop me from following my dreams — he definitely wasn’t a dinosaur when it came to women boxing! I was 13 when I told my mum I wanted to win an Olympic gold medal.

never mind that women were still banned from boxing officially by the Amateur Boxing Association of England (the ban was lifted the following year in 1996). I was just a normal child — but I had very big dreams.

I believed in myself, but there were plenty of coaches who had an issue with women boxing; they saw it as a male sport. We were treated as a novelty at best. But I never let the sexism discourage me one bit, even though it was annoying. Sometimes I asked myself why the battle against stereotypes and archaic thinking was so difficult.

But I had lots of people behind me saying I had to stick at it, I was really good and I couldn’t waste my talent.

Winning gold in 2012 (the first time boxing was a medal sport for women) showed me that anything is possible. If you believe in yourself and don’t let anything stand in your way, you can achieve anything you want.

These days I’m looking forward to new challenges and breaking new barriers. A path has been carved out in amateur boxing, and now it’s time for me to do it in the professional world, where there’s huge potential for women. Nicola’s book Believe (Viking, £14.99) is out now.