BBC Cymru Wales Sports Personality of the Year 2021: Boxer Lauren Price gets award

Lauren Price with the BBC Cymru Wales Sports Personality of the Year trophy

Boxer Lauren Price is the BBC Cymru Wales Sports Personality of the Year for 2021.

In August, the 27-year-old claimed the women's Olympic middleweight title, beating China's Li Qian in the final at the Kokugikan Arena in Tokyo.

With that victory, Price became the first Welsh fighter to win an Olympic boxing gold.

She is also the second British woman to win boxing gold after Nicola Adams' flyweight successes in 2012 and 2016.

Price dominated Li, the 2018 world champion, from the start, outworking and outmanoeuvring her taller opponent for a 5-0 points victory, with a 30-27 winning margin on all five judges' scorecards securing the Olympic title.

The semi-final had been a far trickier affair for the Welsh southpaw, pitting her against long-time Dutch rival Nouchka Fontijn - the woman Price had beaten to win her European Games and World Championship titles, but who she had lost to twice already this year.

Fontijn won the first round and looked on course to end Price's Olympic dream. But a brilliant final-round performance from the Welsh fighter secured a narrow win and a place in the final to claim gold.

Price was selected for the BBC Cymru Wales award by an expert panel chaired by Welsh Rugby Union performance director Nigel Walker, and consisting of Paralympic great Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, Leshia Hawkins the Cricket Wales chief executive, former Wales footballer and netball player Nia Jones and Sport Wales' Owen Lewis.

Walker said there had been "some robust discussion" amongst the panel due to the depth and quality of talent on display in Wales over the last 12 months.

"But because of sporting achievement in 2021, the impact that it's had on the nation, how it resonated... throughout Wales and the personal struggles this person has been through and no little talent, the panel is unanimous that the BBC Wales Sports Personality of 2021 is Lauren Price," Walker said.

• BBC Cymru Wales Sports Personality of the Year winners

Despite her success it has been a bitter-sweet few months for Price, who was raised by her grandparents, but saw grandfather Derek pass away in November 2020. She dedicated her Olympic gold medal to him and also to her grandmother Linda.

Price began the year in good form, in February winning silver at the Bocskai Memorial tournament in Debrecen, Hungary, losing to Fontijn on a split decision in the middleweight final.

Fontijn again stood in Price's way in the Grand Prix event in Usti nad Labem, Czech Republic, in May and she had to settle for bronze after being beaten by the Dutch fighter.

Price had already been tipped for Olympic success, but importantly in June she secured her place at the Tokyo Games after winning the middleweight final at the European qualifiers in Paris - taking an unanimous points victory over Russia's Zenfira Magomedalieva.

On the back of her Olympic triumph, in October Price was announced as the winner of the inaugural Olympian of the Year award - voted for by the public - in the 2021 National Lottery Awards.

Price is only the third Welsh boxer to win an Olympic boxing medal, following Fred Evans who won welterweight silver at London 2012 and Ralph Evans' light-flyweight bronze at the 1972 Games in Munich.

Lauren Price gave up playing football for Wales to concentrate on her boxing career

Brought up in Ystrad Mynach by her grandparents, and schooled in nearby Bargoed, Price's early sporting talent was channelled into netball, kickboxing and football.

She represented Wales at international level in different age groups in netball and taekwondo and won world, European and British honours in kickboxing.

She played 52 times as a defender for Wales' national football team across the age groups - winning two senior caps - before she focused on boxing.

Price has been a trailblazer since concentrating on boxing, making an instant impact aged 17 - with just one amateur fight under her belt - by winning bronze at both the Women's European and Youth World Championships in 2011.

She became the first Welsh woman to win a Commonwealth Games medal with a bronze in Glasgow in 2014, before taking gold four years later on Australia's Gold Coast and then winning a World Championship gold medal in 2019.

Wales' only other World Championships medallists are Kevin Evans, who took heavyweight bronze in 1999, and Andrew Selby, who won flyweight silver in 2011 and bronze in 2013.

Price's next big challenge seems to be whether she will remain amateur and choose to defend her titles, or turn professional after being courted by the likes of promotor Eddie Hearn - whose Matchroom Sport stable includes Katie Taylor, Anthony Joshua, Canelo Alvarez, Gennady Golovkin and Oleksandr Usyk.

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