Price ‘dances’ way to becoming Wales’ first cab off the rank
Former taxi driver cruises to landmark gold against Qian Briton vindicates decision to drop football and kickboxing
Lauren Price, the woman raised by her grandparents in the Valleys, the woman who told the Duke of Cambridge that no one ever messed with her when she used to drive a taxi, the woman who played 52 times over different age groups for Wales at football, is the Olympic women’s boxing middleweight champion. And no one can be surprised. Strong, athletic and technically superb, she beat Li Qian, of China, with a unanimous decision. So emphatic was the win, it was hard to recall Qian laying a glove on her.
“If she had a Cuban kit on, people would be raving about her,” said Frazer Clarke, the Team GB boxing captain after her win. “She’s just won an Olympic final and she probably took two shots. She danced around, looked fantastic.”
By winning what was Great Britain’s second gold and sixth boxing medal – their best haul in the Olympic ring since 1920 – Price was on another level to her opponent. No wonder she looked so calm on the podium. No need for histrionics when you know you are the best.
“I’m quite a laid-back person,” Price, who is also the first Welsh fighter to win Olympic boxing gold, said. “I keep myself to myself. I’ll always keep my feet on the ground. Even though I look quite chilled, I’m buzzing and happy inside.”
In victory, she fulfilled an ambition she has nurtured since she was eight. And it has been a long road for the 27-year-old. Encouraged into kickboxing by her grandfather Derek (who she lost to dementia last year) and always supported by her grandmother Linda, she took up football with sufficient application to play as a centre-back for Wales. She reckoned her fighting background gave her greater resilience: once she split her forehead open after an aerial duel and, while the other player lay on the turf weeping, she got up to carry on, unaware she had blood running down her face.
But, from the moment she saw Kelly Holmes win gold in Athens in 2004, she always wanted to be an Olympian. And with kickboxing not an Olympic discipline,
she dropped the kicking part and took up boxing, winning the Commonwealth Games in 2018 and becoming world champion in 2019. Now she has achieved the ultimate in the amateur game. Her first thoughts on victory were with her grandparents, who had brought her up since she was three days old.
“I was thinking about my granddad and that’s why when the decision came I had a look up to him,” she said. “He was a massive part of my life. If it wasn’t for him and my nan, I wouldn’t have achieved anything. All I was thinking about last night is we live next to a post office, so now I’ll have a gold postbox next to my house. Every time Nan opens the blinds, she will see that.”
It had been a fearsomely exciting lead-up to Price’s fight. On a card worthy of pay-per-view, first up Kellie Harrington, of Ireland, emulated her countrywoman Katie Taylor’s performance in London to beat Beatriz Ferreira, of Brazil, and win the lightweight gold medal. Then, Andy Cruz, of Cuba, the man reckoned to be the best pound-forpound fighter in the Olympics, beat Keyshawn Davis, of the United States, on a split decision to take the men’s lightweight gold.
Price belonged in such elevated company. She arrived in the Kokugikan Arena looking thoughtful, and focused. From the first bell, they bounced round each other, on their toes, looking for an opening. But Qian seemed more cautious, and Price – leading with her right, her left fist cocked – had the ability to pick off jabs with some ease.
She evaded much of what Qian threw at her in the second in the attempt to come back. All Price had to do in the final round was stay out of the way of her opponent. Mind, she had grown up adept at avoiding trouble. Ahead of the Games, she was interviewed by the Duke of Cambridge. She told him that before becoming a member of Team GB she had been driving a taxi, picking up drunks on Saturday night. The Duke responded by saying he bet no one argued with her over the fare. She looked slightly taken aback at the very thought anyone would dare.
And in the final three minutes of her Tokyo Games, she treated Qian like a mouthy ride in her cab: she gave her no quarter. “To perform on the biggest stage and win gold is pretty good,” she said.
That is one way of putting it. Another might be quite brilliant.