Double Olympic taekwondo champion Jade Jones has announced she is switching sports and has taken up boxing.
The Team GB Olympian has said she has taken up boxing in hopes to become a world champion in two sports.
“It is nerve-wracking,” Jones told the BBC. “Some days I wake up and think ‘am I absolutely crazy?'”
“I am loving it. I love taekwondo, it will always be my first love. But this is an exciting challenge. I’ve only been doing it for two months.”
Jones has been training with former professional boxer Stephen Smith and eyes a career in the paid ranks of the sport.
“I don’t know what gave me the idea, I was sat in my kitchen and thought ‘I’ll try boxing,'” Jones said. “My family all think I’m crazy, but people who know me know it is inside me, I love to have a fight and a scrap.”
“People can follow my journey, the good, the bad and the ugly. Can I get to the top? Will I fail?
“The dream is to be a world champion. To be a world champion in two sports would be pretty cool.”
Jones represented Team GB at four Olympics and won two gold medals, as well as a World Championship.
The 31-year-old became the youngest Team GB Olympic gold medallist when she won gold as a 19-year-old at the 2012 London Games. She successfully defended her medal four years later in Rio de Janeiro.
Jones’ preparation for the Paris Olympics were marred by controversy over a missed drugs test but she was cleared by the UK Anti-Doping Agency.
She is now stepping away from the sport that bought her so much success.
“My family have been a little bit sad about me giving up taekwondo,” she said. “I’ve never used my hands. After 20 years of using my feet I am switching it up.
“Boxing is good for me. It started as a distraction but now I am going to go for it, because I am just loving it.”
