Adams, who is Black and a lesbian, said sexism had been the biggest barrier she had to overcome in her 25-year career, as a new documentary traces her journey as a trailblazer in the battle by female boxers to be treated as equals. “We’ve just been put in a box for so long that whenever a woman does anything that’s outside the box it always seems really extreme, but it shouldn’t be,” Adams told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a video call from her London home.
Adams, 39, became the first woman and first openly LGBTQ+ person to win an Olympic gold medal in boxing, with her victory at the 2012 Games in London making her a household name.