Britain’s best sporting underdogs – five stories of athletes against the odds

Double Olympic gold medallist Nicola Adams grew up in a male-dominated boxing world but never gave up on her teenage dream of one day competing at the Olympics.

But when the sport debuted at the 2012 Olympics, she took her chance and went on to win gold, followed by another gold four years later at the Rio Games.

“The funding wasn’t there, a lot of us were still working and trying to fund being athletes as well, which was really difficult,” Adams said.

“When we’d go away and we wouldn’t even have our own competition gear, we’d have to wash it for the other person to wear for competing the next day.

“It was just such a different comparison to when you looked at when the guys went away. They’d have everything.

“They’d have somebody go out a week before, get the hotel set up. They’d have all the rooms on the same floor. They’d make sure all the fridges were stacked, but then we couldn’t even get our own separate competition gear.”

Episode released on BBC Sounds on 6 August.