It is one of the enduring memories of the London 2012 Olympic Games; nineteen year-old Jade Jones ripping off her taekwondo helmet, tossing it high into the air and screaming with joy and disbelief that she had just won Britain's first-ever Olympic gold medal in her sport.

To become Olympic champion is something that almost every athlete dreams of, to scale that summit while still a teenager is somewhat incomprehensible.

In fact, Jones, now 22 years old, had only harboured any real ambitions of becoming Olympic champion for four years previously. Watching the 2008 Olympic Games was what really ignited that dream; before that, she had the relatively modest ambition of merely making it into the British team. For the Welshwoman to achieve her goal a mere four years later was nothing short of remarkable. "It was actually really weird to achieve it," she says. "Before the Games, I was confident that I had a chance of winning but I knew how hard it was going to be because there were a lot of really good girls in my weight category (-57kgs). So I couldn't believe it when I won to be honest."

Her youthfulness, which was what caught the attention of the British public was, she believes, what brought her that gold medal. "I think being so young helped me a lot," she explains. "I still felt the pressure because it was the Olympics and I knew everyone was watching but I didn't care about other the other girl's reputations- I just went for it. Now, I know how good some of the other girls are but back then, I didn't know as much about them and so I didn't build people up in my head as much as I do now."

The plaudits that followed Jones' gold medal were plentiful including being awarded an MBE and being voted BBC Wales' Sports Personality of the year ahead of sporting giants such as footballer Gareth Bale, WBO boxing world champion, Nathan Cleverly and cyclist, Geraint Thomas. It was not all plain sailing for the teenager in the aftermath of London 2012 though. "For years leading up to London 2012, it was all anyone focused on and then I got gold and I was like, 'oh, I've won, what now?'" she says. "Mentally, it was really hard because my only goal had been London. And then there was all the pressure that came with winning gold. People though that I would never get beaten because I was Olympic champion but that wasn't the case at all- at London, I just did amazing on that one day but I still wasn't actually all that good. After the Olympics, I felt like I had to win every single fight."

It is a slump that many in Team GB experienced in the aftermath of the Games; it was somewhat impossible to avoid a comedown after the unparalleled high that London 2012 was. Jones failed to win a medal of any colour at a major championship the following year and it took a pep-talk from her coach to pull her put of her slump. "My coach sat me down and told me that I'll always be Olympic champion so anything else is a bonus," she says. "He reminded me that I didn't need to go in to competitions thinking that I was going to lose my title because it'll always be there. Everyone is desperate to beat me now, which is tough, but I'm starting to deal with that better now. I've improved a lot mentally since London."

Jones has most certainly dragged herself out of that slump now though. She goes into next month's World Championships in Russia as the world number one and is looking to win her maiden world title. She will also defend her Olympic title in Rio next year. Jones admits that being the underdog, as she was at her home Olympics, is an easier position to be in than at the top of the tree, with everyone gunning for her. She would still rather be where she is now though, however tough that makes life for her, particularly with the Olympics less than 500 days away. "It's pretty scary how close Rio is, especially when London still feels like it was only a few months ago," she says. "It's all starting to build up again now. Sometimes I have days when I wake up and think, 'will I fake an illness so I can get out of training?', but then I remember what my goals are and that everyone else is out there training, wanting to take my spot."

Jones will forever be known as Britain's first ever taekwondo Olympic champion yet she is not satisfied with that. "I don't want to be remembered for just winning an Olympic gold medal when I was young and nothing else," she says. "If I want to become a legend in the sport, then I have to keep going. In some other countries, athletes win Olympic gold and they retire straight away because they're set for life but I want to keep on winning medals."

Jade Jones is an Ambassador for the inaugural European Games which will be held in Baku, Azerbaijan from 12-28 June 2015. More information at www.baku2015.com