Nicola Adams once worked as an extra in Emmerdale and Coronation Street to support her Olympic dream but now stands less than two weeks away from completing a story the best scriptwriters would fail to muster.

The former Bradford College student fought for years with no funding and little acclaim and the list of casual jobs she took in order to support her boxing lifestyle included spells in front of the television cameras as well as a short stint as a tiler.

Even Adams’ belated ascent to the world of a fully-funded, full-time athlete was threatened after her sport’s elevation to the Olympic Games came at a time when she was laid up with a career-threatening back injury.

For Great Britain’s most decorated female boxer, with three world silver medals to her name, it makes her arrival at the Olympic village with the rest of the ten-strong host nation boxing team all the sweeter.

Adams, 29, said: “It was always my dream to compete in the Olympic Games but whether it was ever going to come true or not was another matter. There were plenty of times when I thought it was never going to happen.

“I was really close to giving up. It’s hard to be able to train full-time and earn enough money to live as well. It’s only because of my friends and family and sponsors that I was able to keep boxing and get where I am today.

“Over the years I had to take quite a few jobs to pay for my sport. I loved being an extra – I’ve been in the Rovers and in the post office in Emmerdale. It’s something I’d like to do again in the future after boxing.”

Adams is one of Great Britain’s history-making trio of women’s boxers, with reigning world champion Savannah Marshall also tipped for gold at middleweight and world bronze medalist Natasha Jonas at lightweight.

The sport’s introduction is also good news for the medal favourites in the men’s team like Luke Campbell and Thomas Stalker, who have found much of the focus of the media attention switched elsewhere.

Stalker said: “I think the spotlight deserves to be on the women because they can fight. If you win medals then you deserve to be in the spotlight. They are great fighters and they have won medals at the highest level.”