Jade Jones: The making of double Olympic champion chasing history in Tokyo
- Published
Jade Jones became a double Olympic champion aged just 23 at Rio 2016
This is the inside story of how a girl from Flint came to stand on the brink of Olympic history, told through the eyes of her mother Jayne and grandfather Martin.
It was love at first sight.
A young Jade Jones was leaving a swimming lesson with her grandad Martin when she first set eyes on the sport of taekwondo.
Before swimming, she had tried football. And then rugby. Then badminton. Then athletics.
Nothing stuck.
But taekwondo did.
"We tried every sport known to man," says Martin. "I'd buy her the kit and a fortnight later - 'I don't like this grandad'.
"So when we started taekwondo, I said I'm not buying you a suit until I'm convinced you like it!"
Within a month he had bought his eight-year-old granddaughter the piece of clothing that would change her life.
Martin would take his granddaughter Jade to training sessions and competitions across Wales and the UK
'You could see she had something special'
Now with her own taekwondo suit, Jade began training in the building which is now named after her - but back then it was just the Flint Pavilion Leisure Centre.
For the first time in her life, she was doing a sport she loved.
"She was excited to go," her mum Jayne tells BBC Sport Wales.
"She wouldn't want to miss a session. Once there was snow and she couldn't go so she was crying.
"I just could see her confidence growing after every training session. It was lovely because she was quite a shy person so to see her confidence grow was nice.
Jones won a host of titles as she progressed through the ranks
"Her grandad said straightaway that she's got something. You always think that about your daughter or your granddaughter. But we could see that she used to stand out in the class from the people who'd been going years and she'd only just started.
"So you could see she had something special."
Three months after starting the sport, Jade had her first silverware. A bronze medal in sparring at a competition in Chester. Many more medals and trophies would follow.
Jade had been noticed at national level.
She and her grandfather would make the near four-hour trip to Cardiff every two weeks so she could train with the Welsh squad.
"It was a lot of commitment," Martin says.
"Jade would sleep here. We'd get her up about five in the morning and get in the car. It started at nine in the morning.
"Jade had a pillow and a blanket on the back seat and we'd drive to Cardiff. There was a junior session and a senior session but I asked if Jade could do both because it's not worth driving from Flint to Cardiff for an hour.
"The coach agreed - she was good enough.
"We used to get home at half past five at night. So it was a long day and a lot of commitment. But it all paid off - it's all been worth it."
For Martin, at the time a maintenance engineer in a frozen food production plant, sometimes the day would be even longer.
He would often work nights and so would begin his twelve-hour shift not long after returning from Cardiff.
"It's all been worth it," he says in a split second now.
Jade Jones grew in confidence after starting taekwondo, according to her mother
Martin was often the driving force behind Jade's talent.
He would deliberately take her to different clubs in different towns, so she faced varying opponents and styles.
They would also set up extra training in the garden and hire out squash courts to give her somewhere else to hone her skills and fitness.
There was no pressure on Jade - just her own desire to improve.
She wrote a list of her goals as a teenager. The last one was to become Britain's first Olympic taekwondo champion.
"In 2008 she watched Sarah Stevenson in Beijing," Jones' mother adds. "She said 'I really want to go to the Olympics now'.
"It was just amazing. We knew she wanted it and when she wants something, she just goes out and gets it and she just makes it happen."
Olympic gold
It was London 2012 when Jade Jones arrived on the main stage.
But it was not her first Olympic appearance.
That came two years earlier, in 2010, at the Youth Olympic Games. In true Jade Jones style, she won gold.
Jade won gold at the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore in 2010
But getting to the qualifying tournament in Mexico had been an expensive operation. Fortunately the town of Flint was ready to step in and help.
Raffles were set up, fundraising evenings were organised and money was donated. The town raised £1,600 to pay for Jade and her family to get to the qualifiers.
This kind of support may come naturally when you have already won Olympic gold. But the people of Flint were so supportive of their taekwondo teenager that they held a party just to celebrate her selection for the London Olympics and wish her well.
"The whole town's been amazing," mum Jayne says. "They didn't know any of this, what's going to happen, but everyone was behind her and supporting her.
"Now not a day goes by when you don't get 'How is she?' or 'How is she doing?'. The support has carried on."
Just weeks later her daughter had not only gone to her first senior Olympics - but she had won the Olympic title.
"It was amazing," Jayne continues.
Jade won Olympic gold as a 19-year-old debutant in London
"It was absolutely packed, everyone was chanting her name and stamping their feet. People were asking 'Who you here to see?' and they'd say 'Jade Jones' and you'd think 'She's ours!'
"Then when she won this man in front of us turned round said 'Can I just take a picture? I don't think I've ever seen anybody so happy'."
Martin adds: "Ecstatic, absolutely ecstatic. We spent an awful lot of money over the years and it was worth every penny when they put that medal round her neck."
Jade and her family celebrate after her first Olympic title in 2012
Then came the open top bus parade. And the gold postbox. The Flint Pavilion Leisure Centre that started her taekwondo journey became the Jade Jones Pavilion.
But Jones was only just getting started.
Repeating the dream
"She struggled at first," admits Jones' mother. "Because she thought her dream's come true, what do I do now?
"She didn't realise how much pressure she'd have on her. And everybody wanted to beat her - even in training.
"So she had to take a chill and say 'OK, I just need to train. I don't have to win everything. I'll just concentrate on the ones I need to win'."
Jade got back into the rhythm of training and started working towards Rio 2016.
Two European titles in the run-up proved her form and she won a thrilling -57kg final against Spanish rival Eva Calvo Gomez at the Olympic Games - with two trademark head kicks in the final round doing the damage.
Jones beat Spanish rival Eva Calvo Gomez 16-7 in the 2016 -57kg Olympic final
No other British taekwondo star had even matched her one Olympic gold. Now Jade had two.
A first world title followed in Manchester in 2019 and her sights were set on a third Olympic gold in Tokyo.
But then came the pandemic. Suddenly there was another year to wait for the Games. Training moved from GB Taekwondo's elite performance centre to Jade's garage.
Yet she was already focused on using the time to make herself even better, adding "more weapons to her game" in the quest for Olympic history.
No British woman - in any sport - has ever won three consecutive Olympic titles.
"In footballing terms, she's up there with Messi and Ronaldo," Martin says. "In the taekwondo world, everybody knows Jade Jones.
"But it's just Jade to me. I don't see her as this superstar athlete. It's my granddaughter Jade."
Jayne says: "She's confident. We know she can do it, she knows she can do it.
"It's going to be such a hard ask - no one's ever done it. We know if she fights like she can on the day and it all goes to plan, then fingers crossed."
For the first time at a Games, Jade's family are not allowed to be in the crowd.
Instead they will be gathered together in Flint, under a gazebo and in front of a big screen. Her first fight could be as early as 02:00 BST, with her potential final early in the afternoon.
Fitting for Martin that his granddaughter's attempt at taekwondo history involves another night shift.
But whatever the result, the family could not be prouder of what Jade has achieved already.
"She's such an inspiration to young kids," her mum says.
"People say to me 'That's Jade's mum there, she's done this and done that'. If you work hard, you can do it because she's just a normal girl with a dream who made it happen."
Watch: Jade Jones: Fighting for Gold BBC One Wales, Tuesday, 20 July, 20:30 (BST) and iPlayer
The Rap Game UK Season 3: DJ Target, Krept and Konan hunt for the next big MC
Transforming a rental into your dream space: It's boys versus girls when it comes to decorating this house share!
