For #LGBThistorymonth I will be posting an #lgbtq #womaninhistory every day. Today is Nicola Adams, is a former boxer who became the first to win an Olympic women’s boxing Gold medal.

Adams started boxing the same year the ban on women’s boxing in the UK was lifted. She began boxing at age 13, and in 2007, Adams was the first English female to win a medal in a major tournament, taking Silver in the bantamweight (54kg) division at the European Championships in Denmark.

In the 2012 Summer Olympics she defeated Chinese boxer and world number one Ren Cancan in the final to claim the first Olympic women’s boxing Gold medal. She successfully defended her title in 2016. In 2017 she turned pro, and in 2019 retired with an undefeated record holding the WBO female flyweight title.