Nicola Adams Scared of the Dark: Who is the Leeds boxer starring in the Channel 4 show hosted by Danny Dyer and how many Olympic medals has she won?

Throughout her time in the spotlight, Nicola, 40, has not only won the hearts of fans due to her success in sport, she has also been recognised as one of the most influential black Britons. She announced her retirement on November 6, 2019 following an optical injury in a boxing match with Maria Salinas.

The former boxer was named the most influential LGBTQA+ person in Britain by The Independent in 2012. Nicola and her girlfriend Ella Baig, 23, welcomed their first child through IVF on July 12, 2022 after Ella had suffered a miscarriage.

She has broken many barriers as a female LGBTQA+ sports person as she became the first openly LGBTQA+ person to win an Olympic boxing medal. Scared of the Dark airs daily at 9pm from Sunday, April 16 to Thursday, April 20, 2023 on Channel 4. Here is everything you need to know about Nicola Adams.

Early life and amateur boxing career of Nicola Adams

Nicola was born in Leeds and was educated at Agnes Stewart Church of England High School, Ebor Gardens, Burmantofts, Leeds. She also attended Hopwood Hall College in Rochdale before studying at University of Leeds.

She represented Haringey Police Community Club at boxing and fought and won her first match at the age of 13, but it was four years before she found a second opponent.

Nicola became the first female boxer in history to represent England in a fight against an Irish boxer in 2001. Two years later, she became an English amateur champion for the first time and retained this title at the next three championships.

She broke another record in 2007 when she became the first English female boxer to win a medal in a major boxing tournament, taking silver in the European Championships. She won silver for a second time at the world championships in Ningbo, China in 2008, which was Britain’s first women’s world championship medal in women’s boxing.

Nicola had to miss out on the sport for several months in 2009 due to a back injury, then returned to success at the 2010 world championships in Bridgetown, Barbados, winning silver again. She struggled to continue her boxing career due to lack of funds and ended up working as an acting extra on soaps such as Coronation Street, Emmerdale and Eastenders. She also worked as a builder before the International Olympic Committee backed funding for women’s boxing in 2009.

She was a success in the first GB Amateur Boxing Championship at the Echo Arena Liverpool in November 2010 and a year later she won gold medals at the European Union Championships and the European Championships. Nicola was featured in the BBC article ‘6 Promising Britons to watch in the Olympics’ in July 2011.

In the 2012 Summer Olympics, Nicola won a match against Mary Kom in the Flyweight semi-final and went on to defeat Chinese boxer and world number on Ren Cancan in the final to claim the first Olympic women’s boxing gold medal.

At the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, she knocked out Michaela Walsh of Northern Ireland to take the gold medal in the women’s flyweight division on a split decision.

At the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, Nicola had successfully defended her Olympic title, defeating Sarah Ourahmoune of France in the final on August 20.

Nicola Adams’s professional boxing career

After signing with promoter Frank Warren, it was confirmed on January 23, 2017 that Nicola had turned her amateur career into a professional.

She made her debut on April 8 scoring a four-round points decision victory against Virginia Carcamo at the Manchester Arena.

Following three more wins, Nicola competed against former world champion Isabel Millan for the WBO interim female flyweight title on October 6, 2018 at the Morningside Arena in Leicester.