Jade Jones interview: 'I've done everything I ever wanted in taekwondo - whatever happens I can retire proud'

Jade Jones loves a list. She made her very first list after falling in love with taekwondo as an eight-year-old when her grandad Martin took her down the local gym in Flint, North Wales, where his granddaughter would learn the principles of respect and discipline through martial arts in a bid to curb her mischievous demeanour.

She had tried every sport under the sun up until that point, buying all the gear before quitting in a matter of weeks. But taekwondo was the one that stuck and through it, Jones shaped her ambitions. Scribbled in innocent handwriting was one to ‘become the first Olympic champion of Great Britain’ and another to ‘get into the British taekwondo academy.’ 

“I’ve managed to tick most of them off,” said Jones, who fulfilled another in May when the two-time Olympic gold medallist claimed her first world title - a medal that had eluded her since 2011. “But I’ve always got goals and I know exactly what I’m striving for. That way it’s easier to complete.

“This year’s been so special for me because I’d never actually won a world title before. Being double Olympic champion and just missing out quite a few times was quite hard to take. To do it in Manchester, on home soil with all my family and friends watching, it was just amazing to finally be able to call myself a world champion. I’ve ticked everything off the taekwondo list now - world, European, Olympic - no matter what happens now, I feel I can retire proud that I did everything.” 

Jones is bidding to etch her name into the history booksat next year’s Tokyo Games when she could become the first athlete in her sport to claim three Olympic golds. By gunning for her third individual title at three separate Games, the 26-year-old belongs to a special tribe of British sportswomen - alongside equestrian rider Charlotte Dujardin and track cyclist Laura Kenny - who are also hoping to complete a trio of golds. 

“I literally am addicted to winning,” revealed Jones, one of eight athletes nominated for this year’s BT Sport Action Woman Awards. “There’s no better feeling in the world than training so hard and managing to do it. I can’t just have loads of weeks off and expect to win. If I want to be Olympic champion again I have to go to the gym, I have to train hard and this year, the amount I want to win that gold is what gets me out of bed. There’s nothing I want more than that.”

As Britain’s youngest gold medallist in London, the then 19-year-old instantly became the country’s white-suited kicking sensation. The local butchers in Flint even started churning out ‘Olympic gold sausages’ in homage to Britain’s first ever Olympic medallist in the sport. It was part of the hype which preceded the motivational issues she would later struggle with after careering to the pinnacle of her sport. But the companionship of Bianca Walken - the British three-time world champion with whom Jones lives with in Manchester - has helped keep her grounded. 

“Your whole life just becomes obsessed with trying to win that gold medal,” revealed Jones. “We are like sisters now and we have formed a special relationship. People don’t understand how tough sport is - it’s literally like a rollercoaster. You’re up, you’re down. One session you do good, the next you get kicked in the face. It’s just great to have her [Bianca] there, we both pick each other up when the other is down and we’re just striving for the same thing.” 

The Flintshire fighter's quest for the triple means she is already ramping up the intensity of her training regime by stepping onto the mat against her male counterparts from the senior British team. “It’s just to get a harder challenge in training,” explained Jones. “At the minute I’m covered in bruises and getting black eyes most weeks, but hopefully it will all pay off and will make it easy for when I’m getting there. Before previous Olympics I used to train with boys, but they were juniors and a bit more my size. Now they’re men, so it’s a lot harder. The way I see it, if I can deal with the boys, the girls will be a lot easier.”

That Jones is already exposing her body to such physicality is applaudable given the different path she has trodden compared to other taekwondo athletes, many of whom graduate to higher weight categories with age. The Welshwoman has excelled at -57kg ever since enrolling as a full-time athlete as a 16-year-old at Manchester’s British taekwondo training base - where she earned her nickname as ‘The Headhunter’. The moniker reflects her fearless attacking style, repeatedly aiming for the head (where more points are awarded) rather than the body. It is a hunger reflected in Jones, who hasn’t yet ruled out a showing at Paris 2024, when she would be 31. 

“You always just get greedy,” she said. “If I didn’t get that world gold medal it would absolutely kill me. I’m still young to be going for my third Olympics and already I’ve got two out of two, if I get the next one as well, I’m the kind of person who would be like, ‘Oh, I might as well go for four now.’ So who knows?’ Perhaps Jones’ wishlist is never-ending.

The Telegraph is proud to partner the BT Sport Action Woman Awards. To vote for your 2019 BT Sport Action Woman of the Year from the shortlist of Dina Asher-Smith, Pippa Funnell, Jade Jones, Lucy Bronze, Jamie Chadwick, Dame Sarah Storey, Bryony Frost and Katarina Johnson-Thompson visit btsport .com/actionwoman2019