First ever female GB Olympic boxing squad announced
Naomi Wilcox
WVoN co-editor
Three British women made history this week as they became the first ever female boxing squad to enter the Olympics.
Nicola Adams, Natasha Jonas and Savannah Marshall will compete in the Olympic tournament during the London 2012 games this summer, having performed outstandingly at this year’s World Championships in China.
The three women had their places confirmed when the team was announced in Sheffield on Monday. There were similar celebrations around the world as female competitors for the sport were announced.
London will be the first Olympic Games to include women’s boxing. Team GB Chef de Mission Andy Hunt said:
“Boxing was the only Olympic discipline in which women could not participate and London 2012 is set to provide a real legacy for this sport.
“The growth of women boxers has increased quite drastically in recent years and the impressive performances from our athletes is very encouraging ahead of this summer.”
Apart from Russia, Britain is the only country to have all three women qualify and they are expected to collect more medals at this summer’s games.
Marshall,who was crowned Britain’s first ever women’s world boxing champion on her 21st birthday and who won three silver medals at the World Championships said:
“I haven’t really thought about making history at the Olympics, I just take each day as it comes. Obviously we’re making history, but I haven’t really stopped to think about it because I want to be Olympic champion, so I’ve got other things to think about.”
Hunt commented on the impact these changes will have on encouraging younger girls to stay involved with sports:
“I think these Games are going to be a lot about incredible achievements from Team GB’s female athletes.
“For me it will be a really great legacy because we have a real issue in this country with girls dropping out of sports early. These Games will produce a whole new bunch of female role models to get girls participating in sports.
“There are people I know who have taken up boxing only recently because of the success of these athletes.”
The three women take the total number of boxers of team GB to ten. And how many medals do they hope to walk away with? “10″ was the confident answer.
