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...

By Harriet Gibsone