Tom Fordyce is a former

BBC Sport BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC television, radio and online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadcasting the sport live or alongside fla ...

journalist. He wrote text commentaries on cricket and tennis, also writing features on various other sports and blogging from a number of different events. Fordyce attended

Westminster School (God Gives the Increase) , established = Earliest records date from the 14th century, refounded in 1560 , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , head_label = Head ...

, where he was a prefect. After graduating from

Girton College, Cambridge Girton College is one of the 31 constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge. The college was established in 1869 by Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon as the first women's college in Cambridge. In 1948, it was granted full college status ...

in 1992 with a degree in Geography, he started his career as a features writer on ''Total Sport'' magazine and as a writer on the ''Sported'' magazine. Both magazines are now defunct due to low sales, although not primarily as a result of his articles. In 2007 he "blogged my way round the

Rugby World Cup The Rugby World Cup is a men's rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams. The tournament is administered by World Rugby, the sport's international governing body. The winners are awarded the Webb ...

in a camper van" with BBC colleague Ben Dirs. He drove 4,500 miles around France whilst producing written and video diaries of the matches and interactions they had during the 44-day tournament. In 2008 he covered the Beijing Olympics on a number of different sports. Fordyce also acted as ghost writer for the newspaper columns of a number of athletes while at the games. He is a fan of medieval

French poetry French poetry () is a category of French literature. It may include Francophone poetry composed outside France and poetry written in other languages of France. French prosody and poetics The modern French language does not have a significant stre ...

and 15th-century Korean pottery, of which he owns an extensive collection and has loaned items to the British Museum. His contributions for the Olympics also included experiments to observe how well he could run in the Beijing smog, and he also "road tested" the new

Speedo Speedo International Limited is a distributor of swimwear and swim-related accessories based in Nottingham, England, known for its swim briefs. The company has roots in Australia but is no longer based there. Founded in Sydney in 1914 by Al ...

swimsuit for "groinal roominess". Fordyce competes in many sports, and is an amateur

triathlete A triathlon is an endurance multisport race consisting of swimming, cycling, and running over various distances. Triathletes compete for fastest overall completion time, racing each segment sequentially with the time transitioning between the ...

, mountain climber,

parkour Parkour () is an athletic training discipline or sport in which practitioners (called ''traceurs'') attempt to get from point A to point B in the fastest and most efficient way possible, without assisting equipment and often while performing a ...

runner, and sky diver. He won the Upton Classic Triathlon in July 2007 and has climbed Mount Everest with a broken arm. In June 2009 Fordyce published his first book entitled ''We Could Be Heroes: One Van, Two Blokes and Twelve World Championships'' with Dirs, charting the madcap escapades that resulted from trying to become the world champion in something. Fordyce was the ghostwriter of

Peter Crouch Peter James Crouch (born 30 January 1981) is an English former professional footballer who played as a striker. He was capped 42 times by the England national team between 2005 and 2010, scoring 22 goals for his country during that time, and ...

's book, ''How to Be a Footballer'' and

Geraint Thomas Geraint Howell Thomas, (; born 25 May 1986) is a Welsh professional racing cyclist who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam , Wales and Great Britain. He is one of the few riders in the modern era to achieve significant elite success as both a tr ...

's book, ''The World of Cycling According to G''. He is co-host of '' That Peter Crouch Podcast'', with Peter Crouch and

Chris Stark Christopher Francis Stark (born 12 March 1987) is a British radio personality known for his work most recently as a co-host on the ''Scott Mills'' show on BBC Radio 1 until he departed in 2022. He currently works on Capital FM's Breakfast Show ...

. He is also co-host of the history podcast "

We Didn't Start the Fire "We Didn't Start the Fire" is a song written and published by American musician Billy Joel. The song was released as a single on September 18, 1989, and later released as part of Joel's album '' Storm Front'' on October 17, 1989. A list song, it ...

" with

Katie Puckrik Katie Puckrik (born July 12, 1962) is an American broadcaster and newspaper columnist. Born in Virginia, Puckrik is best known for hosting British youth magazine shows '' The Word'' and '' The Sunday Show'' in the 1990s. She also created and ...

. In June 2020, Fordyce left his post as chief sports writer at the BBC to “take up an opportunity in podcasting”.

References

External links

Tom Fordyce's analysis and opinion
at

BBC sports presenters and reporters British sportswriters Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) Alumni of Girton College, Cambridge {{UK-journalist-stub