Duncan Goodhew

Medal record
Men’s swimming
Competitor for  Great Britain
Olympic Games
Gold	1980 Moscow	100 m breaststroke
Bronze	1980 Moscow	4×100 m medley
World Championships - Long Course
Bronze	1978 Berlin	4×100 m medley
European Championships - Long Course
Bronze	1977 Jönköping	4×100 m medley
Competitor for  England
Commonwealth Games
Silver	1978 Edmonton	100 m breaststroke
Silver	1978 Edmonton	200 m breaststroke
Silver	1978 Edmonton	4×100 m medley

Duncan Alexander Goodhew MBE (born 27 May 1957) is a British swimming athlete. After swimming competitively in America as a collegian at North Carolina State University, he was an Olympic swimmer for Great Britain and won Olympic gold and bronze medals at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.

Biography

Goodhew attended Windlesham House School and Millfield School (Walton House). He was the England swimming team captain, and Olympic champion. His bald head made him instantly recognisable. He in fact has alopecia universalis (total lack of hair, not just on head), which gives him a minute hydrodynamic advantage when swimming.^{[citation needed]} He is also dyslexic, and one of his numerous nicknames at school was Duncan the Dunce. He was a member of the British bobsleigh team at the 1981 European Championships (c.f. We Are the Champions, 1984 Grand Final)

He is also an author and motivational speaker. He was appointed an MBE by Queen Elizabeth II for services to sport.

Duncan's 100 m breaststroke gold medal achievement was ranked 99th in the British network Channel 4's 100 Greatest Sporting Moments in 2002.

He has made a number of television appearances including Dave Gorman's Important Astrology Experiment.

After the London protests during the 2008 Summer Olympics torch relay, Duncan Goodhew stated that the protests were "a bad example for children".^[1]

On September 29, 2001, Goodhew participated in an international relay off the coast of California from Santa Catalina Island to Santa Monica.^[2] Of the eight international relay teams participating, each team had one swimmer with MS. Goodhew swam on the same team as organizer and MS activist Taylor MH.^[3] Proceeds from fund-raising were all donated the Myelin Project.^[4]

Cultural references

He is mentioned in the BBC TV series The Office during a motivational speech by David Brent (Ricky Gervais), by The Toy Dolls in a song called Yul Brynner Was A Skinhead, in an episode of Little Britain in which a bald character is likened to the swimmer and in The Mighty Boosh, when a peacock crashes into his back in a speech made by Naboo. He is also sardonically mentioned in the Only Fools and Horses episode The Longest Night by Tom Clark, the head security officer of the fictional Top Buyer Superstores.

In the BBC Radio 4 spoof news programme On The Hour, the sports desk presenter Alan Partridge often alludes to a fictional incident where Goodhew's hair 'tragically' grows back, thus robbing him of his celebrity status as a 'cheery bald swimming star'.

References

1. ^ Telegaph.co.uk Olympic torch relay nearly abandoned - 07 April 2008
2. ^ "Home". DomainofOpportunity.com. http://www.domainofopportunity.com/. Retrieved 2010-07-03. 
3. ^ "Swimming to Santa Monica". Independent. October 18, 2001. http://www.mult-sclerosis.org/news/Oct2001/SwimmerwMS.html. Retrieved 2011-05-26. 
4. ^ Eldred, Georgia. "Mike Does His Charity Swim, With Dolphins...And a Shark". South London Press. http://www.domainofopportunity.com/articleslarge/press_6.jpg. Retrieved 2011-05-26. 

External links

• Biography on Agents website
• TV Appearances on IMDB

Persondata
Name	Goodhew, Duncan
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	27 May 1957
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death