Rachel Bower

Former English National Champion at National Coach and GB Boxing Development Coach

Speaker

Rachel Bower brings a rare combination of lived experience, leadership under pressure, and a fierce commitment to creating change. A former National Boxing Champion who first laced up gloves at 23 she was a latecomer to the sport, fighting against resistance due to her age and gender while balancing the demands of training with working in the Metropolitan Police’s Kidnap Unit. She went on to represent England before stepping away from competition to coach the next generation of athletes.

Today, she’s a Detective Inspector leading the Met’s Criminal Finance Teams and a coach for Team GB Boxing, based at the English Institute of Sport. Balancing two high-performance, male-dominated fields, Rachel speaks with authority on resilience, leadership, and challenging the status quo.

Her influence goes beyond elite sport: she now runs two London-based amateur boxing clubs, using the ring as a space to shape discipline, confidence, and community in young people. Rachel has also led award-winning community programmes for The King’s Trust, Sport England, and The National Lottery, supporting people with Parkinson’s, young people from under-resourced communities, women and girls, and the LGBTQ+ community. At the heart of her work is a belief in the power of sport to empower, connect, and transform lives.