Double Olympic Taekwondo champion and a contestant on The Jump, Welsh ‘headhunter’ Jade Jones’ net worth is still under review.
Jade Louise Jones was born to Gary Jones and Jayne Ferguson in Bodelwyddan, Denbighshire, Wales, on March 21, 1993. Growing up in the town of Flint, Jade Jones came to know about Taekwondo through her granddad Martin Foulkes.
How did Jones gain her fame?
After completing her schooling at Flint High School, the 16-year-old Jones embraced full-time. Her granddad became her biggest support, driving her four times a week, to the Manchester Aces club (60 miles across the border). Noticing her talent, Manchester’s elite training hub Great Britain Taekwondo took Jones under its wings.
Jones won her first medal, a Bronze, in Saint Petersburg, Russia, at the European Taekwondo Championships in 2010. Soon, she clinched her first Gold in the 55 kg category at the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games (supported by a £1,600 funding by the pubs/businesses of Flint). That year, Jones was voted BBC Cymru Wales Junior Sportswoman of the Year.
In February 2011, she travelled to Austin, Texas, winning her first senior title (a Bronze in the 57 kg category) at the US Open there, The following day she went on to grab Gold in the 62 kg category of the competition.
Related
Before long, Jones earned the Silver at the 2011 World Taekwondo Championships in Gyeongju, South Korea (May 2011), Gold at the British Open in Manchester (October 2011), a Bronze at the French Open, Silver at the German Open in Hamburg (March 2012), and a Bronze at the 2012 European Taekwondo Championships in Manchester (May 2012).
Selected to represent Great Britain at the 2012 London Olympics in the women’s 57 kg category, Jones brought Gold and glory to her nation by becoming Britain’s first Taekwondo champion and youngest Gold medallist. In the 2013 New Year Honours, Jones was awarded the MBE.
Jones is called “Headhunter” in Taekwondo circles due her fondness for head kicks (which add more points).
Following a lack-lustre 2013 World Championship campaign, Jones quickly regained her winning ways, leaping back to Number One in the world ranking. She then claimed Gold at the 2015 European Games in Baku, Azerbaijan and also won the European title (June 2015).
At the 2016 Rio Olympics in Brazil, Jones won Gold in the 57 kg category to retain her 2012 title (the only male or female Taekwondo fighter to retain an Olympic title and the sixth athlete in Olympic history to have won two Golds). Consequently, Jones was gifted a Jaguar.
Content from our partners
Following each of the Olympics, Jones was named BBC Cymru Wales Sports Personality of the Year.
She is one of the participants on the fourth series of The Jump—Channel 4’s winter sports entertainment show set in Austria (from February 5, 2017). Other contenders include Paralympian Kadeena Cox, Bradley Wiggins, Louis Smith and Josie Gibson.
Jones’ government-backed UK Sport funding will continue even during her time on The Jump.
Jones is preparing for the Taekwondo World Championships in South Korea (June 2017)—the only major international title eluding her.
