Given his diagnosis with Parkinson’s disease nine years ago, some might have expected 80-year-old Jon Goodwin to have lost his appetite for adventure.
But the former Olympic canoeist aims to prove them wrong next month by rocketing to the edge of space at nearly three times the speed of sound, as one of Virgin Galactic’s first citizen astronauts.
“For me to go into space is hopefully inspirational to all people,” said Goodwin, a slalom record holder who qualified for the 1972 Munich games.
“From becoming an Olympian to canoeing between the peaks of Annapurna, to winning a six-day race in the Arctic Circle, climbing Kilimanjaro and cycling back down, I’ve always enjoyed rising to new challenges,” he said.
Goodwin, from Stafford in the West Midlands,