It's all Goodison

Sailing star Paul Goodison talks of kinetics, kilos and why he can no longer go snowboarding.

Sipping a can of Diet Coke and offering his optimistic thoughts on Sheffield United's promotion hopes, Great Britain's Olympic sailing hopeful Paul Goodison paints a picture of the utmost serenity as he awaits his first interview with skysports.com. Not that a brief chat about his chances of landing a second Olympic gold medal in Laser sailing this summer is anything to be fazed by, but Goodison appears remarkably stress-free despite preparing to give a motivational speech to a triple-figure audience of Volvo employees in his hometown, the car manufacturer being one of British sailing's key sponsors over the last decade. It's not all plain sailing, though, as the conversation soon turns to Goodison's gruelling regime this time four years ago, when the 2009 Laser World Champion was busy shedding 10 kilos of weight ahead of what ultimately culminated in "the most amazing feeling in the world" as he took gold in Beijing. But the 34-year-old shakes his head as memories of a broken wrist are unearthed, an injury which threatened to derail his involvement in China. Goodison speaks of the measures he has gone through to prevent such trauma in the build-up to London 2012, where he is expected to be among the frontrunners in the men's Laser class event in Weymouth, where Paul has resided for the past eight years. Skysports.com got deeper into the mind of the man nicknamed 'Golden Goodie.' Right Paul. You were punished for "illegal kinetics" in the Audi Laser World Championship in Germany earlier this month and subsequently finished a disappointing 20th, is that something you feel you need to work on ahead of the Olympics or do you expect a more lenient approach from the jury in Weymouth? Each jury has their own interpretation of the rules. The jury who were out there in Germany are not the same guys who are going to be at the Olympics. In the last two or three years I haven't been penalised for such infringements, so it puts a little bit of doubt in your mind, like 'am I doing the right things?' But then, the guys who've been on the jurys at previous Olympic events haven't seen a problem in what I've been doing. Although it was a major setback and it caused a little bit of doubt - I think we're on track. I'm pretty positive in the techniques that I've developed over the past four years and they are what I deem to be legal. We've analysed the video and shown another jury the video and had their feedback. So there are slight changes that need to be made, but only slight and I'm confident going forward that we have the right package and that it won't happen again. Let's hope not. Now, Australia's Tom Slingsby has just clinched his fifth Laser world title in Germany, is he the man you need to beat at London 2012 or are the other contenders being underestimated? I think Tom is the man to beat in 2012. I thought he was going to be in 2008 - he went in there as double World Champion - but he came undone and didn't finish in the top 20. But I really think that there are seven or eight guys that can win at the Olympics, or are at least capable of winning medals. I think it'd be very naive to think that you're up against one man, because you're not. But I think I've got the overall package in all the conditions to win the goods. Tom's obviously amazingly strong in the strong winds, but he does have his weaknesses. Some of the other guys are really strong in windy conditions but not in others. So if you