Team GB trailblazer tips boxing star for gold after admitting sport is a "world apart"

Trailblazer Nicola Adams is tipping Chantelle Reid to follow in her footsteps and the first woman to win an Olympic boxing gold sees one striking similarity in her path to the podium as the Derby-based middleweight.

Reid thought her career was over before it had really begun because of a degenerative back condition.

But after five years away, including time working as a mortgage advisor, she returned to the ring in 2023 and has risen spectacularly to become the favourite for glory in Paris.

Adams also found herself unable to box because of a back problem before her transformative exploits in London 12 years ago and says: “You definitely have to watch out for Chantelle Reid.

“Having watched how she boxed in the qualifiers, I feel like she’s the one to beat. I came back from a back injury in 2010 to win the gold in 2012 and it just gives you so much hunger when you have an injury that takes you away from what you love doing.

“It’s almost like the whole way through the injury you want to get back to what you were doing and go to the Olympics.”

Reid, who gets her campaign underway on Wednesday, is one of three women in the six-strong GB squad.

And Adams says she thinks the sport now is “a world apart” from the one she competed in. Adams went on to retain her title at Rio 2016 and became the first Brit since Henry Mallin in 1924 to win back-to-back gold in the ring.

She is still humbled by the credit she gets for putting women’s boxing on the map and is proud to see the next generation take the movement on.

“When I went in in 2012 people didn’t even know women boxed,” she adds. “To go from that to where we are now is unbelievable, it’s great to see. I’m delighted to see how women’s boxing has progressed and to be able to inspire the next generation.

“Seeing Lauren Price winning gold in Tokyo - that’s what I wanted to do when I boxed, to inspire people. It’s nice to see the progress go from strength to strength.”

The former flyweight, 41, is working as an analyst for the BBC in Paris but also plans to visit the British boxers in the athletes’ village.

And she has one piece of simple advice for the class of ‘24 - do not let the myriad distractions get in the way until competition is finished. “I like being on the other side,” she adds. “It’s nice to watch and not have to do the hard work and I’m excited to go into the village to see them.

"I like the buzz and entertainment of the village. But it can be distracting for the fighters. They have to find the balance of what is good for them. If social media is something that distracts you, don’t be on there until after competition. I only thought about winning and my tactics in the ring.”