Nicola Adams

“Nothing ever stops me smiling, apart from getting beat in the ring.”

“There is so much to learn from boxing, you can never have learnt everything; anybody who says they know it all is lying. You can't - there is always something new to learn.”

“I would be more wary of boxing a pretty boxer than I would one that looks like they have been bashed up a bit because the pretty boxer obviously doesn't get hit - so that means they must be quite good!”

“I'm like a 'comeback kid' - you can't keep me down for long!”

“As a kid, I was always picky about food; if it didn't 'look right,' I wouldn't eat it.”

“No one's ever really cared about me being bisexual, and I only came out because I had always been out; it's just the general public didn't know. I'm quite fearless. I'm like, 'Let's just go out there and do this and see what happens.'”

“Everywhere I go, people ask me for photos and autographs, saying I inspired them to start training. Boris Johnson says his sons started boxing after seeing me - how cool is that?”

“I think the more people that feel comfortable in their own skin and feel happy that they can come out and know that it's not going to affect their job or moving up in their career is the way forward. Just making people feel happy and comfortable in their own job and in their sport.”

“At the 2012 Olympics, there was a nutritionist in the food hall telling us, 'Eat that. And eat that.' After winning my gold, I went to McDonald's for chicken nuggets and a strawberry milkshake, but that was just for the hell of it. I don't feel hungry after a match, to be honest.”

“My mum did really well raising me and my brother by herself. I know it was a struggle, and even from a young age, when I was boxing, it was always to make my mother proud.”

“I'd love to be the Ali of women's boxing, to retire as the greatest.”

“You can have someone younger, faster, but if you have got that experience and that ring craft, you can do anything in that ring.”

“If I've got an event coming up, I might buy myself a new suit. I prefer wearing suits to dresses - I reckon I've got about 15.”

“Yes, I'm always keeping my eye on trends and designers. With certain favourites, I can tell you what season an item of clothing is from. I've been to a few catwalk shows, and I love seeing how the clothes look on a person.”

“Sometimes my brain is saying, 'Go wild on food,' and I'll want to pig out, but I'll tell myself, 'No.' You either want to win or you don't.”

“I only went into a gym by accident. My mum couldn't get a babysitter and wanted to do aerobics, so she took me and Kurtis, my younger brother, down to the gym. There was an after-school boxing class on with some of the kids from school. There weren't any other girls there, but I didn't mind. I loved it.”

“When I was young, I used to watch videos of Ali boxing, with my dad. It set me on the road. I wanted to be like Ali. I wanted to have my own Nicki shuffle and everything.”

“Just imagine if women's sport was on the TV all the time - how many more female athletes we would have?”

“Everyone is beatable on the right day.”

“Every time I get in the ring, I have to give 110 per cent because my opponents have nothing to lose and everything to gain, so I have to make sure I go in there with my A-game and come away with the victory.”