Jade Jones: Even men wanted to beat me up after my London 2012 gold

Chance to make history: Jade Jones
Clint Hughes/Getty Images
David Churchill17 August 2016

Taekwondo champion Jade Jones has told how “everyone was trying to beat me up” in training after her gold medal win at London 2012.

Jones, 23, from Flint in Wales, defends her 57kg title tomorrow, taking on Morocco’s Naima Bakkal in the first round, with the final late in the evening.

Jones said that after the last Games, “the hardest thing for me was the pressure”.

She said: “Every day before that was just building up for London, and then when it happened it was such a weird feeling. I remember coming back to training and everyone was trying to beat me up — even the men.”

Jones said she was “buzzing” about the start of her competition: “I’m a girl, but I’ve just always loved a scrap.

"I feel like it’s all coming together at the right time and I can’t wait to get out there. To be going to my second Olympics is amazing and to have another chance to make history again is an amazing opportunity and I’m buzzing.”

Jones paid tribute to her grandparents for encouraging her to take up taekwondo, saying that she could have gone down the “wrong route” if the martial art had not given her “a purpose”.

She said: “I started to get quite naughty at a young age. I think from 10 I was smoking and stuff, and going down the wrong path, so my granddad wanted to get me going in the right direction.”

She said they took her to a local club to learn martial arts “because it teaches you respect and stuff and is a channel for anger and aggression. I just remember walking into the club and seeing all the flashy kicks and spins, and just fell in love with it.”

Jones said: “I was dead hyperactive as a kid and had loads of energy, and for a girl I’m surprisingly aggressive. It suits me because of that.

"I’m not scared to get stuck in and have a scrap, whereas a lot of girls don’t want to be hit in the face or don’t want to be toe to toe with someone.”

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