Nothing will ever top that day in London says the taekwondo star.
Jade Jones knows that whatever else she wins in her sport she can never top what she achieved when she was just 19.
The pretty, petite teenager from Flint won the hearts of a nation and provided one of the most enduring Olympic memories when she won taekwondo gold at London 2012.
The sight of her throwing her helmet in the air and the commentator’s emotionally-charged yell of “You little beauty!” will long remain one of the Games’ iconic moments.
But for Jones, peaking just a couple of years into what she hopes will be at least a decade-long career, it means she has to make sure everything else that happens isn’t an anti-climax.
Next week she takes her status as Olympic Champion into the World Taekwondo Championships in Puebla, Mexico, and she admits she’s finding being the girl to beat is difficult.
“I’ve been struggling a bit because everybody knows who I am now,” she says. They’ve been watching my fights and analysing me. Everyone wants to beat me. No matter what the standard of opponent they just want to beat the Olympic Champion.
“It’s been really tough trying to deal with that. It’s 10 times harder to win now so I need to step up to another level.
“Some would say it’s harder to win the Worlds than the Olympics anyway. There are more people in the weight category to beat.
“But I’ve got to deal with the expectation levels because I don’t want to just be remembered as the girl who won Gold when she was 19.
“I want to be World Champion, then double Olympic Champion and become a legend in the sport.
“Before the Olympics I had a London 2012 poster on my bedroom wall to inspire me. Now it’s a poster of all the women I’ve got to beat in Mexico.
“Some days I still find it hard to believe what I did last year. I’m reminded every time I visit my mum, though, because she always asks me if we can watch the fight again. I think she watches it every day!
“The best thing is that so many people have told me they’ve started taekwondo.
“People recognise me now. And, yes, a lot of the time they greet me with: ‘You little beauty!’.
“It’s been a fantastic year but I now have to shut that part down and concentrate on what’s ahead.”
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