Jody Gooding is a

beach volleyball Beach volleyball is a team sport played by two teams of two or more players on a sand court divided by a net. Similar to indoor volleyball, the objective of the game is to send the ball over the net and to ground it on the opponent's side of the ...

player for

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

who was the youngest-ever British champion.

Early life

He was born in Gloucester in 1980.Volleyball
Team Bath (24 April 2011). He attended school in

Tuffley Tuffley is a suburb in the city of Gloucester and one of the fifteen wards of the English city of Gloucester. The ward, which is non-parished and situated near Robinswood Hill toward the south of the city, has services including schools, shops ...

St Peter's High School, Gloucester St Peter's High School and Sixth Form Centre is a Roman Catholic academy school and sixth form centre, on Stroud Road in the Tuffley area of Gloucester, England. The head teacher is Kevin McDermott. The main feeder schools are St. Peter's Cath ...

and

Hartpury College Hartpury University and Hartpury College, formerly Hartpury College, is a provider of further and higher education which describes itself as specialising in the "agriculture, animal, equine, sport and veterinary nursing" sectors. The university a ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

Career

The youngest British Champion and winnigest British male athlete. Based mainly in Hermosa Beach, California. He competed on the world tour from 2007. He won the men's championship with Paul Godwin at Weymouth in 2001 despite having a broken toe and whiplash injuries, and was named player of the tournament. He won again in 2003 with Clayton Lucas. Training on

Sandbanks Sandbanks is an affluent neighbourhood of Poole, Dorset, on the south coast of England, situated on a narrow spit of around 1 km2 or 0.39 sq mi extending into the mouth of Poole Harbour. It is known for its high property prices and for it ...

Beach,

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...

, he won the Sandbanks Classic with Greg Weaver in 2004/2005. He completed a hat-trick the following year with M Bowes. He won the Volleyball England Beach Championship at

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

in 2007 with

Steve Grotowski Steven 'Steve' Grotowski (born 30 May 1982 in London) is a British beach volleyball player. , Grotowski is tall and weighs . He is coached by Morph Bowes. He lives in Boynton Beach, Florida, United States and has dual British and US citizenship. ...

. In 2009, Gooding relocated to the UK

HQ at

TeamBath TeamBath is the University of Bath's sporting organisation. In addition to entering teams in BUCS intervarsity competitions, TeamBath has also entered teams in national leagues and competitions. Team Bath F.C. reached the first round proper of th ...

, part of the

University of Bath (Virgil, Georgics II) , mottoeng = Learn the culture proper to each after its kind , established = 1886 (Merchant Venturers Technical College) 1960 (Bristol College of Science and Technology) 1966 (Bath University of Technology) 1971 (univ ...

. His team partner is Steve Grotowski, with whom he played at the FIVB World Series in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

in 2009. He has played on the FIVB World Tour since 2007. He was the youngest-ever British champion. He has won over 35 British Tour events. Jody currently has the highest finishes for a male athlete from Great Britain on the international stage a 13th place on the World Tour ad 9th Place on the European Tour. 2011 was a good year for Jody after getting a career high of 13th on the World Tour and beating all is other Great Britain rivals, he has put himself in Pole position for qualification to the 2012 Olympics with seven tournaments remaining, Gooding appeared on

Match of the Day ''Match of the Day'' (abbreviated to ''MOTD'') is a football highlights programme, typically broadcast on BBC One on Saturday nights, during the Premier League season. The show's current presenter is former England international striker Gary L ...

with members of the

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

team to launch a government sport initiative. It was announced on 22 November 2011 that Nutrition company NutritionX would be sponsoring and Supporting Jody in his push for a place at the London 2012 Olympics.

Personal life

Gooding lives in a 175-year-old cottage in

Midsomer Norton Midsomer Norton is a town near the Mendip Hills in Bath and North East Somerset, England, south-west of Bath, north-east of Wells, north-west of Frome, west of Trowbridge and south-east of Bristol. It has a population of around 13,000. ...

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

with his wife, fellow beach volleyball player

Denise Johns Denise Johns (born 9 December 1978) is a professional beach volleyball player. She was born in Luxembourg, grew up in the US, but competes for Great Britain. Early life Johns was born on 9 December 1978 in Ettelbruck in Luxembourg."Inside Lines: Big brother Vitali puts his title at risk in political punch-up"
''The Independent''.

References

External links

jodygooding.com
* https://web.archive.org/web/20100211200238/http://web.mac.com/cushygooding/gooding_grotowski/at_the_beach.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Gooding, Jody 1981 births Living people Team Bath athletes Sportspeople from Liverpool English men's beach volleyball players Men's beach volleyball players People educated at St Peter's High School, Gloucester