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Staff GB medal hope Lauren Value instructed The Duke of Cambridge that boxing gold at Tokyo 2020 would high the whole lot in her extraordinary profession.
Value, 27, remodeled 50 appearances for Wales Girls’s nationwide soccer staff and gained senior world and European kickboxing titles earlier than specializing in her Olympic dream.
In an interview for BBC Sport, Value, who will turn out to be Wales’ first feminine boxer to compete on the Olympics, spoke with Prince William about her exceptional life and expectations for Tokyo.
“The Olympics imply the world to me and if I used to be to go and win a gold medal it will high the whole lot in my profession,” mentioned Value, who was raised in Ystrad Mynach, Glamorgan, by her grandparents, Derek and Linda.
“I bear in mind being sat in the lounge with my Nan and Grandad watching the Olympics and seeing Kelly Holmes win gold, and on the time I didn’t know what sport I needed to do, I simply needed to go to the Olympic Video games.”
4-time world champion and six-time European champion at kickboxing, Value gained the inaugural Welsh Premier Girls’s Soccer League title with Cardiff in 2013 and gained 52 senior caps for Wales earlier than quitting soccer to give attention to boxing in 2014.
Former taxi driver Value, whose grandfather died final 12 months, revealed her sporting goals in a narrative she wrote at college.
Nan Linda instructed the BBC: “Lauren mentioned she needed to be a world champion kick boxer, play soccer for Wales and go to the Olympics and the instructor laughed. I mentioned, ‘it is best to by no means attempt to shatter their goals.’
“It’s simply unhappy that her grandfather’s not right here to see it as a result of he would have been the proudest man within the valley.”
GB Boxing efficiency director Rob McCracken added: “She’s an outstanding athlete and an actual function mannequin for the females, actually at GB Boxing and within the staff.
“She’s in an amazing place now to go on and fulfil her potential, which is successful an Olympic medal.”
:: Watch the complete chat between the Duke of Cambridge and Lauren Value on BBC Sport’s web site now.
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