Adams inspired by gold after back breaking journey to ring in London

Nicola Adams will never forget the day in June 2009 that she inadvertently proved women are tough enough to box each other for Olympic medals.
'I was running down the stairs at home in Leeds because I had a fight in London and I was late,' she says. 'I didn’t realise some of the bandages I use to wrap my hands were hanging out of my bag.' You can probably guess what happened next. 
'I fell down about 10 steps,' she says. 'My back didn't feel right, but it wasn't excruciating so I got up and went to the fight.'

In the Nic of time: Adams won her bout to set up a gold medal chance

She won. She usually does when she’s not in the final of a major championship. But if Adams, 29, finally takes that golden step in Thursday’s flyweight final, this delightful, showboating technician will have done so against a more remarkable set of circumstances than most.
'The next couple of weeks after the fall were strange,' she says. 'The pain kept getting worse. It was horrible, so sharp. I went for scans and couldn’t believe what they said. End of the world.'
The world championship silver medallist of 2008 had broken a bone in her back and would spend three months in bed, getting up only to use the toilet or occasionally to join her family for meals.
She was lying there, strapped into a brace, when the announcement came on August 13, 2009 that women’s boxing would make its Olympic debut in London.
'I panicked,' Adams says. She played a significant role in getting women's boxing added to the Games, not least because she was the first female to box for England, and she was 'probably going to miss it because of some stairs'.
'After the announcement there was the first selection camp,' she says. 'I went to show my face but I had my brace on and was on painkillers. I was really low.

Back breaking work: Adams' career was nearly curtailed by a serious injury

'I'd won world silver in 2008 but I knew selection would be hard. We had such good competition for places in the team.
'The physio and doctors said I'd be back well in time but I couldn’t see what they were seeing. The first day I did physio I remember I couldn't do one sit-up – before I could do 300.’
It wasn’t until January 2010, seven months after the fall, that she could do a light punching workout. 'The first time I actually sparred was at a camp in April not long before they picked the team for the 2010 world championships,' she says.
'You have to understand, if you don’t get selected for the worlds you might not get back in if the other girl does well. The worlds that year were in Barbados in September and I hadn't fought since the injury. I couldn’t even run. I was in a mess.'
When she boarded a plane for Crete that June, a year after her accident and with hopes of a place in Barbados fading, she had no idea what was to come.
'It was a really small tournament,' Adams says. 'I wasn’t supposed to be boxing, but the coaches said, "She's looking good in sparring, I fancy putting her in". I was panicking. I didn’t know if I was ready, but there weren’t really any more chances for me to make the squad for the worlds and it was meant to be a straightforward tournament.

Running rings: Adams was forced all the way by her opponent from India

'They did the draw and it turned out Russia had turned up with their world No 1s and that. Oh god. Of course we drew Russia and my first fight was against a world and European champion (Elena Savelyeva). In a way, everything was on that fight.'
Adams won. She won the tournament, too. And then she went to the world championships and won silver - all before she had started running properly again.
'If I hadn’t won in Crete and gone on to the worlds I really don’t know if I’d be going to the Games,' she says.
When she won silver at the world championships earlier this year, it was her third, two of which have been 'inflicted' on her by Ren Cancan of China, the woman standing in the other corner. 
'She's my arch nemesis – she's beaten me twice and I've won once,' says Adams. 'It's a real fight to get past her.'
If there’s one thing Adams has proven herself to be, it’s a fighter. After taking up the sport at 12 for no grittier a reason than her mum used a gym that ran boxing classes, she had to wait four years for her second bout.
'There just weren't many girls doing it,' she says. 'I was telling my coaches that if we did my hair a certain way and put the helmet on no-one would know I was a girl so I could fight boys. They didn’t go for it.

Famous faces: PM David Cameron and Amir Khan watched Adams go through

'When I finally had my second fight, at 16 or 17, I stopped her. There was a bit of pent up frustration.'
And yet Adams, who dazzled in her opener against Bulgaria’s Stoyka Petrova on Monday and again against five-time world May Kom on Wednesday, is more about brain power and speed and a touch of showmanship.
'I did the Ali Shuffle in my first ever fight,' she says. 'I love that stuff. If I get to the Olympic final I’ll definitely throw in a shuffle. I love to put on a show.'
To that end, she's done extras work at £100 an episode for Coronation Street and Emmerdale and plans to take acting classes after the 2016 Games.
But that can wait. There is another date with Ren first and a few scores to settle. 'Bring it on,' Adams says.
She’s the last British female left standing and is on something of a mission; a mission that she wouldn’t consider a success if it ended with another silver medal. She says: 'I’d do anything for that gold, it's all that matters.'
She's already beaten a broken back for it.