Olympian Jones using ADHD diagnosis to box clever

ByChris Wathan

BBC Sport Wales

Double Olympic champion Jade Jones believes being diagnosed with ADHD helped her to make sense of her struggles – as well as her greatest successes.

Now the 33-year-old from Flint believes her neurodivergent trait is aiding her ambition to make a fist of her switch from taekwondo to boxing as she prepares for her second fight in her new sport.

Jones became one of the headline stars at London 2012 when she won taekwondo gold while still a teenager, successfully defending her title at Rio 2016 to underline her status as one of Wales' greatest Olympians.

But after difficulty dealing with lockdowns and disappointments at the Tokyo and Paris Games, Jones says a diagnosis helped her understand something that was perhaps obvious to others.

"It was weird because I always used to struggle in ways that other people wouldn't," says Jones, who was first taken to taekwondo sessions by her grandfather to keep the "mischievous" eight-year-old out of trouble.

"I think [it was the] Covid [lockdown] that brought it out, when you have a bit more time with yourself.

"I got diagnosed [with ADHD] after the Olympics because things went to pot a little – and I'm not blaming it on that, but there were certain things I couldn't handle and didn't understand about myself.

"When I got diagnosed everybody was like 'of course!' – and I said they could have told me!"

Jones says the penny dropped after the diagnosis, allowing her to understand how she was able to "hyper-focus" on her sport at the highest level for so long.

"And that's the important thing because you can see it as a negative," adds Jones.

"But if I didn't have ADHD I genuinely don't think I would have succeeded in everything I've done so far. So it is like a superpower."

Jones is not alone as an elite sportsperson who has the neurodivergent condition, with England footballer Lucy Bronze and England rugby union prop Hannah Botterman among those sports stars who have spoken publicly about their diagnosis.

Jones says – having made the decision to quit at the top of taekwondo and begin at the bottom with boxing last year – she can "lock on" to another challenge as she learns more about managing the condition.

Having been without a plan for retirement because her condition meant she had been "all in" for taekwondo and predicting she would "fail miserably at a normal job", she has called boxing "a perfect distraction" and helped her cope with the initial anxieties after ending her Olympic days.

Training under former professional boxer Stephen 'Swifty' Smith at Liverpool's iconic 4 Corners Gym, Jones made a stunning debut in Misfits Boxing in Derby in March.

Paired in a crossover bout with US reality TV star Egypt Criss, Jones lived up to her 'Headhunter' nickname from her taekwondo days with a brutal second-round knock-out.

"I was getting shouted at in the gym that I'd not be allowed back if I reposted the knockout one more time," says Jones of the punch that went viral. "But to be fair, the video does get better every time I watch it.

"But it was good to feel that I wasn't out of place because, even though I've spent my life competing, you know in boxing in that ring you can get knocked out in a second.

"It's just you versus that person and everything is on the line, everyone watching and you're either going to succeed or fail."

Jones' next taste of boxing will come on 13 June when she takes on Argentine influencer Federikita on another Misfits bill that also includes Tommy Fury and strongman Eddie Hall.

Jones – who took gold at the 2019 Taekwondo World Championships to add to her Olympic titles – has previously spoken of a desire to reach the top in her new sport.

But she says she also wants to enjoy the new experiences rather than get burdened by the pressures that she found after success in her previous sporting life.

"Since the day I won my first Olympics, I've had pressure on me and it's never been the same since," she says. "You're never that young, underdog kid again.

"I did think that switching sports meant I got to start again, but you realise you'll always be an Olympic champion with those pressures on you.

"The mistakes I made in taekwondo I felt it was everyone else putting pressure on, but really it was me doing it to myself."

She says she now realises all that matters is what she does and where she wants to take it.

"I have to pull myself back sometimes because although I am one-tracked minded, and all-in to boxing now and wanting to be the best, I came into this wanting a new challenge and wanting to enjoy it and to see where it goes," she adds.

"I've not set any sights that far."

More information, advice and help on ADHD is available on BBC Action Line.