Vitaliy Klitschko, the giant Ukrainian who holds the World Boxing Council heavyweight title - the most authentic of the game's alphabet soup - says women’s boxing sickens him.

"When I see two women face to face in a boxing ring I feel nausea. The sport is appropriate for men, not for women. Perhaps I am old (Dr Ironfist is 38) or conservative but I consider there are sports much more beautiful for women than boxing."

He is not alone among boxing’s elder statesmen in disapproving strongly of ladies who punch. Sir Henry Cooper pointedly made an excuse and left when a female bout was announced during a mixed international between Great Britain and the USA last year. Amir Khan believes women should stick to tennis, Barry McGuigan is firmly in the anti-camp as is leading promoter Frank Warren ("I wouldn’t allow my daughter to box") while my good friend Colin Hart, The Sun’s doyen of boxing scribes, will have no truck with it either.

Their self-admitted chauvinistic views will get short shrift from the seven feisty females selected as Britain’s Olympic squad, notably Amanda Coulson who is among those in contention for the three places available when women’s boxing makes its Olympic debut in 2012. 

The 27-year-old lightweight from Hartlepool, whom I first met five years ago when she was helping to pioneer the sport here, is something of suffragette of sock. I am delighted to see her in the squad for she has campaigned vigorously for the recognition of the sport when there were many in male-dominated officialdom sneering at its validity in this country and obstructing its progress. She said at the time: "When I am out there in the ring I am not only fighting my opponent, I am fighting the officials, the organisations, and all the old school that don’t agree with women’s boxing."

She gained the backing of the then-national coach Terry Edwards and her fight has been well and truly won despite the detractors like Klitschko and co. The advent of women’s boxing in the Olympics is a real landmark for London and a triumph for those like  Amanda who have fought strenuously for the cause.

Both the Amateur Boxing Association of England and the British Amateur Boxing Association are to be applauded for their ready acceptance of women’s boxing into their programmes and affording it equal status with the men in terms of facilities and coaching at elite level. 

When I first spoke with Amanda (pictured) she was sparring at Crystal Palace in preparation for the European Championships. I hope I am not being too sexist when I say that she is attractive enough to be on the catwalk instead doing a ring walk. Then there were about 70 female boxers in Britain.

Now there are 700, and more than 37,000 women regularly participating in boxing training as a fitness exercise.

Over 250 clubs in England have female members and in 2008/2009 British women won 18 medals in seven international competitions, including three golds and two bronze in the EU Championships in Bulgaria.

The articulate Coulson now shrugs off the reactionaries, saying: "You will always get some people who are negative, saying women shouldn’t box, or it is just handbags at ten paces. But the sport has evolved dramatically and has as much skill and technique as in men’s boxing."

She told us she first got the gumshield between her teeth as a 13-year-old. "I've always been a bit of a tomboy and liked competing in male- dominated sports, but what attracted me to boxing was when I read a report in a local newspaper about two other 13-year-olds who were to be the first females to take part in a bout in England. I thought, 'I wouldn't mind a crack at that', but I didn't really know where to start, so I thumbed through the Yellow Pages looking for a club that would take women. Finally I found one, a local boys' club that was run by the police (Hartlepool Catholic Police Community Club). They welcomed me and that was it. I was hooked.'"

She now works for the police as a communications officer, answering 999 calls, and fits her roadwork and gym training between her shifts. At college she studied sports science and intended going to university, but this plan was abandoned when her father died of a brain tumour.

Coulson, who has been boxing for 14 years, has extensive experience, collecting medals at an array of international tournaments and  representing GB in the 2008 World Championships. She has been in great form since being beaten by her under 60 kilo rival Natasha Jonas in the 2009 ABA Championships.

Hartlepool now seems a hotbed of women’s boxing, producing another squad member in 18-year-old middleweight Savannah Marshall (pictured), who won the European Union title in only her fifth bout and is known as "The Silent Assassin" because she has little to say for herself but is a ferocious finisher in the ring. After winning the European Youth title in December 2008, she moved into senior boxing with devastating results, winning the 2009 ABA title inside 60 seconds before being crowned European Union champion in only her fifth adult contest.

The tall, unbeaten teenager twice defeated American Brittany Inkrote in internationals against the USA in London in November (the one Sir ‘Enry walked out on), winning 16-3 and 19-4.

She is a hot tip for an Olympic medal, together with Britain’s most successful female boxer, flyweight Nicola Adams, 27, from Bradford, Britain’s first world amateur medallist, winning silver in China 16 months ago.

With only three divisions - flyweight, lightweight and middleweight - there will be intense rivalry for an Olympic berth, though Marshall seems virtually guaranteed a slot as she is the only one nominated at middleweight.

Coulson will be challenging for the lightweight spot with Jonas, who has beaten her twice, and Londoner Ruth Marshall. The 31-year-old Navy lieutenant Lucy O’Connor, who like Coulson, has been an ardent campaigner on behalf of women’s boxing, has shed 6kg to be one of the three competing for the flyweight place, together with favourite Adams and Nina Smith, from Essex.

All seven will receive funding and train fortnightly at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield under GB Performance Director Rob McCracken and a highly professional set-up which includes coaches, a nutritionist. a psychologist, a physiotherapist and a video analyst. 

Amanda Coulson, boxing’s Cinderella girl, could hardly have envisaged all this happening when she first began banging the drum for women’s rights (and lefts) in the sport. As the saying goes, you’ve  come a long way, baby.

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered 11 summer Olympics and scores of world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire, and is a former chairman of the Boxing Writers’ Club.