Gladiator Jodie Ounsley looks back: ‘There weren’t many girls like me at school. I always liked bashing into people’

The former rugby star on being a tough youngster, how she became Fury on the hit TV show, and losing her dad Born in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, in 2001, Jodie Ounsley is an athlete, television personality and author. A former England rugby sevens player, she is the first deaf female rugby player for a senior England side. In 2024, she joined the BBC revival of the series Gladiators, in which she competes as Fury; the same year, she was one of the presenters for the 2024 Paralympics. Her second book, Strong Girls, co-written with Becky Grey, is out on 9 April. I was six and had just got back from karate practice when Mum said, “Right, let’s take a picture!” Most kids would have stood politely and smiled, but my first instinct was to do the deadliest pose. This photo sums up my mentality as a little kid. I was the tough girl who loved contact sports. I was determined, fiery, fearless and wanted to get stuck into everything. Usain Bolt was my hero and I wanted to be fast just like him. There was a running joke in my family when it came to sports day – I treated it like it was the Olympics, taking it so seriously that it became borderline ridiculous. All the other kids would co