Nicola Adams was the first ever woman to become an Olympic boxing champion - but she believed it would happen from childhood. Her book Believe is out now, she talks to Kate Whiting about her steely fight for success.

She hasn't got a bad word to say about anyone, least of all her Twitter trolls: "Even if they're saying bad stuff, they've actually still taken time out of their day to write you that, so I guess in a way they're still fans," she says, giggling.

But beneath that bubbly exterior is a steely determination that has seen her become, in her own words, "the most accomplished amateur boxer in Britain that we've had, male or female".


The reigning Olympic, World, Commonwealth Games and European Games flyweight boxing champion, Adams, who's now turned pro, became the first ever female boxing Olympic champion in 2012. Achieving Olympic gold was something she knew would happen from her teens, and she retained her title in Rio last year.

Her autobiography Believe distils just how 'the baby-faced assassin' was shaped, learning to fight both inside and outside the ring.

It's clear from the book she's her mum Dee's biggest fan and today says her incredible self-belief comes from her.

"She worked so hard, was a single parent, raising two kids and working two jobs to help with funding me and looking after my brother. She always used to say, 'If you work hard, you can achieve anything' and I've always believed it. It shows today, two Olympic gold medals later."

Born in Leeds in 1982, Adams showed early signs of physical prowess by starting to walk aged just six months. She grew up on a council estate with younger brother Kurtis, and spent six weeks in New York each summer visiting family, some of her happiest memories.


Despite being plagued with allergies, eczema and asthma, she didn't let them stop her from doing what she wanted.

"I remember being told that, having asthma, I shouldn't really be running around and playing with the other kids, but at five years old, you can't tell a kid to sit down and not play, so I was like, 'I'm not going to do that, I'm going to have fun and try new things'. So I guess I've always have that determined attitude," says the 34-year-old, in her familiar Yorkshire accent.

Her mum inadvertently introduced her to boxing when Adams and her brother were dragged along to the boxing gym, where her mum was having an aerobics class, after a babysitter cancelled at the last minute.

She describes it as a "proper old-school, Rocky-style gym, with steamed-up windows". She'd watched all Muhammad Ali's fights on TV with her dad and was fascinated, so when the coach at the gym asked if she wanted a go, she fell hook, line and sinker.

Her first match was in a working men's club in Leeds, aged 13, the room "thick with smoke, which really hurt the back of my throat", but she still won and decided then and there she was going to be an Olympic champion, even though women's boxing wasn't yet an Olympic sport.


And then there was the inequality she faced as a woman boxer: No physios, barely any time to train in camps and even having to share kit.

In the book, Adams also describes how she came out to her mum as bisexual at 15, and her mum's reaction was typically "amazing". "She very casually said, 'Oh, that's OK, I kind of knew anyway'."

She recently proposed to Mexican-American pro boxer Marlen Esparza over dinner in their room at the Shangri-La Hotel in London's Shard, and the pair train together in San Francisco, where they could settle in future: "It's a very different culture to Leeds, it's quite easy-going."

And there's also her budding acting career - she's been an extra in Corrie and Emmerdale and trained as a stuntwoman before London 2012 - and would like to combine acting and boxing some day.

Perhaps she could play the first female James Bond?


"That would be cool, I'd have to be the first one wouldn't I? I've been the first on everything else!"

Believe: Boxing, Olympics And My Life Outside The Ring is published in hardback by Viking, and available now.