Meet Tom Goddard. Junior Australian Athlete.

This is my first ‘interview’ write up in my new little project. I chose to write about someone I know very well, who is close to my age and continues to inspire me.

Meet my cousin Tom Goddard; he is 17 and attends Scotch Oakburn College in Launceston, Tasmania. Even though I don’t get to see him much, the time we do spend together is filled with fun and a lot of laughs – usually involving some sort of sporting match! If I was going to describe Tom in just a few words, I would use: dedicated, motivated, smart, athletic and always striving for excellence.

Tom excels strongly in school, scoring 44.2 tce points in year 11, through studying Physical Sciences, English Communications, Maths Methods and Sport Science. He was runner up dux at his school last year. This year he is studying Maths Specialised, Physics, Chemistry and Computer Aided Design. “Pretty full on!”

For as long as I can remember, Tom has been the ‘golden boy’ in my family, being selected and competing for Tasmania in various sports. He has been travelling around Australia since year 4 representing Tasmania in cross country and athletics state teams, and later on adding orienteering to the list. He has also been Tasmanian Captain for all three of these sports! Thus showing he is not just talented, but also a leader and someone people look up to.

Tom’s current sporting focus is on MTB. MTB is basically navigation on a bike, the aim being to do so as fast as possible. Races can last from 20 minutes to two hours, depending on the distance. Tom is the current under 19 state champion for the sport and has recently been selected for the 2011 Australia MTB Orienteering Team. In August the team of four athletes will be flying to Italy to compete.

Tom will be spending a month in Italy, training for the first week, competing for the second and travelling with his family for the last two weeks (lucky thing!) In the second week he will compete in 6 races, against a field of 70 competitors from around the world in the junior age group (ages 17-20).


In training for selection, Tom went to Victoria in January to train and then again in April to do his trials. He states that training was pretty hard. He did a lot of group riding and competed in MTB races. In preparation for Italy, he now trains on the road – including two 6am rides a week! He has also started doing road races to help train for Italy, he recently completed a 90km race from Campbell Town to Bicheno.


Next year Tom plans to take a year off from studying, to work and ride, hopefully regaining his spot in the Australian Team. Next year the competition will be held in Hungary. He is planning to go to The University of Adelaide in 2013 and study a bachelor of engineering, specializing in sports engineering. “This course is the only thing that I am truly interested in and I’m really keen for it!” His dream job in the future is to design bikes.

I wish Tom the very best for the years to come. He has already achieved so much in his 17 years and I’m sure will continue to do so. Wherever life takes him, I’m sure he will continue to strive for excellence and make the most of the opportunities given to him.



Tom on the right holding an Australian flag after being selected for the 2011 Australian MTB Orienteering Team