NICOLA ADAMS

THE OUT BI BOXER WHO SCOOPED HER SECOND OLYMPIC GOLD IN RIO THIS YEAR TALKS TO DIVA INTERVIEW JANE CZYZSELSKA

—National Treasure—

PHOTOS L+R: HAIR + MAKE-UP PATRICIA

@CAROLHAYES

When Nicola Adams walks into the room, it’s hard not to take notice. Despite her size – she cuts a slight physique at just 5’ 5” and 51kg – the flyweight world amateur boxing champion has an intensity and a megawatt smile that demands attention.

Refreshingly for someone of such high profile, she’s driven herself to the north London studio where we meet for our photo shoot – fresh from the catwalk at London Fashion Week, where she sashayed like a pro in a Vin & Omi suit emblazoned with the image of her hero, Muhammad Ali.

Half an hour before our cover star arrived, I went looking for a parking space near the Stoke Newington location and found the only one as far as the eye could see. If I’d placed a sign there that read: “Reserved for reigning boxing queen Nicola Adams”, I’m convinced no one would’ve nicked the spot, such is the strength of love and admiration that the Leeds born-and-bred LGBT role model inspires. Chatting to the DIVA team before the shoot, she admits she gets mobbed in her home city. Do hopeful women try to pass her their phone numbers when she’s out on the town? “Yeah, yeah,” she answers in her Yorkshire drawl, cool as you like. “It’s something that I’ve got used to, you know.”

Her first Olympic boxing triumph at the London 2012 Olympics made her not only the first female boxer ever to represent Great Britain, but also the first out LGBT person to win an Olympic boxing gold. She is, since the Rio Olympics, the first out bi woman to win a second Olympic gold and the first British boxer to win back-to-back gold.