Lauren Louise Price (born 25 June 1994) is a Welsh

amateur boxer Amateur boxing is a variant of boxing practiced at the collegiate level, at the Olympic Games, Pan American Games and Commonwealth Games, as well as many associations. Amateur boxing bouts are short in duration, comprising three rounds of three ...

, and former kickboxer and

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

. While representing Wales she won a bronze medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, becoming the first Welsh woman to win a Commonwealth Games boxing medal. Four years later she surpassed this achievement by winning gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, followed by a gold at the 2019 World Championships. While representing Great Britain, she won gold medals at the

2019 European Games , translation: Time for bright victories! , nations participating = 50 , athletes participating = 4,082 , events = 200 in 15 sports , opening ceremony = 21 June , closing ceremony = 30 June , officially opened ...

and

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

. Price also played football for several years with Cardiff City, winning the inaugural season of the

Welsh Premier Women's Football League The Adran Premier, currently known as genero Adran Premier (for sponsorship reasons), is the highest level of league competition for women's football in Wales. It is the women's equivalent of the men's Cymru Premier, and it is organized by the Foo ...

in 2013. Having captained Wales at under-19 level, she made her senior debut in 2012. She gave up playing football in 2014 to focus on her boxing career.

Early life

Price was born in

Newport, Wales Newport ( cy, Casnewydd; ) is a city and county borough in Wales, situated on the River Usk close to its confluence with the Severn Estuary, northeast of Cardiff. With a population of 145,700 at the 2011 census, Newport is the third-largest a ...

, but grew up in

Ystrad Mynach Ystrad Mynach is a town in the Caerphilly County Borough, within the ancient county of Glamorgan, Wales, and is north of the town of Caerphilly. The urban area has a population of 19,204, and stands in the Rhymney Valley. Before the Industr ...

, Caerphilly, where she was brought up by her grandparents. She attended Heolddu Comprehensive School in

Bargoed Bargoed ( cy, Bargod) is a town and community in the Rhymney Valley, Wales, one of the South Wales Valleys. It lies on the Rhymney River in the county borough of Caerphilly. It straddles the ancient boundary of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, wit ...

. She showed a keen interest in several sports, taking up football,

netball Netball is a ball sport played on a court by two teams of seven players. It is among a rare number of sports which have been created exclusively for female competitors. The sport is played on indoor and outdoor netball courts and is specifical ...

and kickboxing at the age of ten, the last after encouragement from her grandfather. As a kickboxer, Price won a silver medal at a World Championships event in Athens in 2007 at the age of 13, competing against opponents twice her age, and became the youngest ever competitor in the British Championships. She went on to become a four-time world champion and six-time European champion in the sport and later competed in

Taekwondo ''Taekwondo'', ''Tae Kwon Do'' or ''Taekwon-Do'' (; ko, 태권도/跆拳道 ) is a Korean martial arts, Korean form of martial arts involving punching and kicking techniques, with emphasis on head-height kicks, spinning jump kicks, and fast k ...

Football career

Club

Price was spotted by scouts from Cardiff City. She credited her kickboxing training with helping improve her play, commenting "I could kick a ball a lot further than any of my team mates" and noting that "I might have had a higher pain threshold than everyone else." She was part of the club's under-16 side that won the Welsh section of the Tesco Cup in 2010, being named player of the tournament. She progressed to the senior team at Cardiff and won the inaugural

title during the 2012–13 season after their decisive 5–2 victory over Wrexham in the final game of the season. Price was named the club's Player of the Year during their title winning season. Price was also named the

Football Association of Wales The Football Association of Wales (FAW; cy, Cymdeithas Bêl-droed Cymru) is the governing body of association football and futsal in Wales, and controls the Welsh national football team, its corresponding women's team, as well as the Welsh ...

(FAW) Club Player of the Year. In 2014, Price stepped away from football to concentrate on her boxing career ahead of the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

International

Having captained Wales at under-19 level, Price made her debut for the Wales senior side on 16 June 2012, replacing Sarah Wiltshire in the closing stages of a 1–0 victory over

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern ...

Boxing career

Price initially took up boxing as a teenager but became further involved in the sport after watching British fighter

Nicola Adams Nicola Virginia Adams (born 26 October 1982) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 2017 to 2019. She retired with an undefeated record and held the WBO female flyweight title in 2019. As an amateur, she became the first fe ...

win gold at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. After competing in a single amateur bout at 17, she entered the Women's European and Youth World Championships where she claimed a bronze medal. At the 2014 Commonwealth Games, she became the first Welsh woman to claim a boxing medal after defeating Kaye Scott in the quarter-finals of the women's middleweight division to guarantee at least a bronze. She met

Ariane Fortin Ariane Fortin (born November 20, 1984) is a Canadian southpaw amateur boxer. She is a two-time World Boxing Champion. She also won a silver medal in the middleweight category at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and a bronze medal at the 2015 Pan A ...

in the semi-final but suffered a split decision defeat. She claimed another bronze medal at the 2016 Women's European Amateur Boxing Championships. In 2018, she became the first Welsh woman to win a gold medal in boxing after defeating Caitlin Parker via split decision in the final of the event. In May 2019, Price was selected to compete at the

Minsk Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach and the now subterranean Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the admi ...

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by ...

, winning the gold medal. Price competed in the

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

, beating Dutch boxer

Nouchka Fontijn Nouchka Fontijn (; born 9 November 1987) is a retired Dutch boxer. She is the current European champion in the women's middleweight or 75 kg class after winning gold at both the European Games in 2015 and the European Championships in 2014 ...

in the middleweight semi-final. She went on to win gold against Li Qian of China. In response to her success, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge tweeted: "Congratulations @LLPrice94 on winning Olympic Boxing gold. It was fantastic to hear your story in person ahead of #Tokyo2020. I know your nan Linda and the whole of Ystrad Mynach will be so proud of your incredible achievement, as are we! W." Price was appointed

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(MBE) in the

2022 New Year Honours The 2022 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 15 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebrations ...

for services to boxing.

Personal life

Price studied a Foundation Degree in Football Coaching and Development at the

University of South Wales The University of South Wales ( cy, Prifysgol De Cymru) is a public university in Wales, with campuses in Cardiff, Newport and Pontypridd. It was formed on 11 April 2013 from the merger of the University of Glamorgan and the University of Wa ...

. Her partner is

featherweight Featherweight is a weight class in the combat sports of boxing, kickboxing, mixed martial arts, and Greco-Roman wrestling. Boxing Professional boxing History A featherweight boxer weighs in at a limit of . In the early days of the division, t ...

amateur boxer Karriss Artingstall.

Honours

Cardiff City *

; 2012–13 Individual * FAW Club Player of the Year: 2013

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Price, Lauren 1994 births Living people AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships medalists Alumni of the University of South Wales Boxers at the 2014 Commonwealth Games Boxers at the 2019 European Games Boxers at the 2020 Summer Olympics Cardiff City Ladies F.C. players Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for Wales Commonwealth Games medallists in boxing European Games gold medalists for Great Britain European Games medalists in boxing Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics Members of the Order of the British Empire Middleweight boxers Olympic boxers of Great Britain Olympic gold medallists for Great Britain Olympic medalists in boxing People educated at Heolddu Comprehensive School Sportspeople from Caerphilly Sportspeople from Newport, Wales Wales women's international footballers Welsh Olympic medallists Welsh women boxers Welsh women's footballers Women's association football defenders World middleweight boxing champions