Jody Cundy
Jody Alan Cundy OBE (born 14 October 1978) is an English cyclist and former swimmer. He has represented Great Britain at six Summer Paralympics winning seven gold medals across swimming and cycling events. He has also competed in multiple World Championships, winning 21 medals.
Cundy was born in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire to Alan, a fitter-welder, and Ann, an accountancy clerk. He grew up in Norfolk along with his younger brother Ashley. Cundy was born with a deformed foot, which was amputated when he was three years old.
When Cundy was aged 10, his parents met a disabled girl's parents and they discussed disability swimming. After some research, Cundy's parents decided to get him involved. Cundy showed early potential, breaking swimming records for his age group. After become a leading member of his local King's Lynn club's team, he made his international debut at the Swimming World Championships in Malta in 1994. "I was," he recalls, "a rank outsider. I knocked four seconds off my personal best and won the world 100m butterfly title at the first attempt." But he was, he says, "never a naturally gifted swimmer. I don't have the build. I just worked very hard: 10 or 11 two-hour sessions in the pool each week, and weights and core strength work – 30 hours-plus a week." He later became a top athlete, and represented Great Britain three times in swimming at the Paralympic Games from 1996 to 2004, winning three gold and two bronze medals. After a 2004 Athens Paralympic Games that landed him a "not great" bronze, Cundy joined the high-performance swimming centre at Swansea.
In 2006, he switched from swimming to cycling, competing at international events in the C4 disability category. Winning gold in the kilo in his debut at the 2006 world championships, he repeated this feat in 2007 and 2009 also taking the team sprint title at both events. Since switching to cycling he has been based in Manchester where he trains with the Great Britain Cycling squad.
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