POWELL Natalie

General
RETIREMENT THOUGHTS
She has hinted at retiring from the sport in 2021. "I will be prioritising the Olympics for sure, there's a chance I will finish my career afterwards so to have a world championship as well [in 2021] when I'm in the best shape of my life is exciting." (cardiffstudentmedia.co.uk, 04 Nov 2020)

RETURNING HOME
In 2019 she left British Judo's World Class Performance Programme in Walsall, England, to train with her own coach in Cardiff, Wales. "I felt like over the last year or so my judo performances had kind of plateaued and like I wasn't really improving any more. It's been difficult because I was in Walsall [British Judo's base] which wasn't a place I wanted to live. I didn't have my friends and family around me. On the mat I didn't feel I was getting the input I needed to improve. As soon as I came back here [Cardiff], I just feel like I'm getting stronger and fitter. My competition performances are improving. Everything is just going in the right direction. Even though I've had to take a massive cut in funding, I just feel it's going to pay dividends in the long run." (bbc.co.uk, 23 Jan 2020)

COPING WITH MIGRAINES
Early in her career, she missed almost a year of action after reacting badly to being hit on the head. Eventually she was diagnosed with a type of migraines that have continued to occur throughout her career. "I had to take a back seat from sports because everyone was [saying], 'You can't go back on the mat until we find out what's wrong with you'. It turned out to be a specific form of migraines. So that's something I've had to deal with since. It's a bit worrying at times if it happens in a competition, it can really throw my day and it has done a number of times. Eventually when we got it sorted we tried a few different coping strategies, a few different medicines and now [2018] we're on top of it." (soundcloud.com, 23 Apr 2018)

In 2017 she became the first female British judoka to be ranked world number one, after winning gold at the Grand Slam in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. (britishjudo.org.uk, 01 Nov 2017; BBC, 31 Oct 2017)