MY SPORTING JOURNEY: BOXING STAR SAMEENAH TOUSSAINT SHARES HER STORY

Boxing sensation Sameenah Toussaint wants to emulate British legend Nicola Adams and stand on the top of the Olympic podium.
In recent years Sameenah has cemented her spot as one of the brightest prospects within GB Boxing, with a string of national age level titles to her name alongside two European bronze medals and a Commonwealth Games appearance in 2022.
Having started boxing aged ten, the 20-year-old is now part of the GB set-up ahead of the Olympic Games in Paris next summer, with qualification for France beginning this year.
And with her idol Adams having made history with gold medals at London 2012 and Rio 2016, Sameenah feels she can make her own significant mark.
“Ever since I’ve seen Nicola Adams want to win the Olympics I’ve wanted to do that myself," said Sameenah - who receives her SportsAid support from Royal Bank of Canada. I need to follow in her footsteps and I think that’s quite achievable now.
“I feel like being part of the GB set-up has definitely built me as an athlete, I feel a lot stronger and the strength and conditioning has been working and I feel like I’ve filled out a bit. I’m still quite young so I haven’t got that full strength, but it’s coming and coming along good.
“Boxing is everything, I put a lot into it. There’s a lot of sacrifices but I feel like that’s my main focus and everything revolves around it."
SportsAid Week 2023 is taking place from Monday 6 March to Sunday 12 March. This year’s theme focuses on ‘Accessibility and Inclusion’ as the charity shines a spotlight on the country’s most talented young athletes and celebrates the incredible work being undertaken by its partners to support the future of British sport.
The theme of ‘Accessibility and Inclusion’ is an opportunity for the charity’s partners to highlight their own work in this area during SportsAid Week, with SportsAid athletes recently revealing that accessibility and the cost of sport are the issues they care most passionately about.
It will also open up discussions on the progress being made, as well as the challenges faced, in the sports sector. While Sameenah believes boxing is inclusive, there were obstacles she had to face as a younger boxer.
She added: “Boxing is very inclusive, it doesn’t matter your age or your gender, it’s a sport that anyone can get into - it can be fun.
“It was quite intimidating at first. I was the only girl and I was fighting boys bigger and older than me, and some of them would take it light - a bit light, it was quite patronising - and there would be the other extreme where they would try and knock me out. It wasn’t the best environment to be in.
“I think it was the general atmosphere that I didn’t really get on with. I never thought of boxing at first, but when I started winning that’s when I wanted to continue.
“I won my first national title at 12 and from there I just gained a lot of confidence and started really liking the sport.”
SportsAid Week 2023 is taking place from Monday 6 March to Sunday 12 March! Join us for a dedicated week of fun and awareness-raising based around theme of accessibility and inclusion. Please visit www.sportsaid.org.uk.
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