Nicola Adams
Nicola Adams is another impressive British sports personality to emerge into the national and international spotlight from the crucible of the London 2012 Olympics and it’s little wonder she is much in demand as a keynote speaker as well as sports speaker.
As an openly Lesbian boxing champion she has become one of the voices of her generation, a standard bearer for the LGBT community. In 2012 the Independent named her the most influential LGBT person in Britain. Her inclusion in the annual Powerlist recognised her as among the most influential people of African/African-Caribbean descent in the UK. Diversity and inclusion are among her specialist topics as a keynote speaker.
Nicola Adams’s career is a long list of “firsts”. The first female to win an Olympic boxing title in 2012. The first female double Olympic boxing champion after retaining her flyweight crown at the Rio Games of 2016. The first avowedly gay Olympic boxing champion. She collected the whole set of amateur titles available to her: winning Olympic, European and Commonwealth Games, plus World, European and EU championships.
After turning professional, capturing the world flyweight title seemed to presage a new phase of her triumphant career. Sadly her first bout as champion, when she retained that title with a hard-fought draw, also ended her career. A serious eye injury which meant she risked losing the sight in one eye if she fought again, forced her retirement in 2019.
Even so, at the age of 38, her achievements, honours, citations and “firsts” still resonate with the public. She is an Ambassador of Fight For Peace, a non-governmental organisation which uses boxing and martial arts alongside education to help young people in areas affected by crime and social exclusion.
This diminutive Leeds-born athlete with the ready smile has charm aplenty to captivate your event, but rest assured, she will also tell it like it is, with a powerful message as a keynote and motivational speaker for any audience.