Nicola Adams has recalled the every day micro-agressions she faces as a black woman.
The Olympic athelete has been followed around shops by security guards in the past and has had to deal with people assuming she’s going to steal from them.
She is aware she is ‘treated differently’ but has now ‘become resilient’ to comments she gets about her race or her sexuality (Nicola is gay and dating girlfriend Ella, 21).
Nicola told Women’s Health: ‘As a Black woman, I know I’m treated differently – subtle things, like people moving their handbags away from me or security guards following me around shops.
‘I’ve become resilient to the comments I get online – I’ll block people rather than reply. But recently, Ella [who has also been subjected to online bullying] and I decided to fight back, because maybe there are people out there who aren’t able to cope with these sorts of messages; people who might find it comforting to know that even though I’m an Olympic champion, people still say horrible things to me.’
The sportswoman may come under more scrutiny in the upcoming series of Strictly Come Dancing, where she will make history on the show by becoming one half of Strictly’s first ever same-sex couple.
But she’s more than ready to face the naysayers, even after some of them have already complained to Ofcom before the series has even started.
‘They wanted to know if I wanted to be on the show but I said, “Yeah, I will do it but I want to dance with another female dance partner”,’ Nicola shared.
‘I know it’s going to be tough, I know the training is going to be hard and I can’t dance at all so this is going to be a totally new challenge for me.’
The BBC released has since released a statement addressing the complaints, which read: ‘Strictly Come Dancing is an inclusive show and is proud to have featured same-sex dancing amongst the professional dancers in group numbers in previous series.
‘We have stated, in the past, that we are open to the prospect of including same-sex pairings between our celebrities and professional dancers, should the opportunity arise.
‘Nicola Adams requested an all-female pairing, which we are happy to facilitate.
‘The show is first and foremost about dance, the sex of each partner within a coupling should have no bearing on their routine.’
Read the full Nicola Adams interview in the November 2020 issue of Women’s Health, on sale from September 30.
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