By timesecholife on in All News, Uttoxeter news
OLYMPIC champion Adam Peaty is set to swap the swimming pool for the ball room - as a contestant on this year’s Strictly Come Dancing.
The BBC’s annual Saturday night dance series will feature Uttoxeter’s Adam – Olympic champion, World champion, world record-holder and MBE – alongside 14 other celebrity guest stars.
The highly anticipated show is expected to return to our screens in September, bringing a line-up of celebrities and professional dancers who will team up to strut their stuff in front of a panel of judges.
The BBC announced Adam’s participation in the show on Friday. In an interview for the broadcaster, Adam said: “I’ve never ever danced with a partner, like properly, so it’s going to be interesting.
“It’s going to give me a new lease, or just the way I look at swimming and look at training – I think if you divert your mind to something else which is important and you go back to that, you appreciate it a lot more.
“If I take too much time out of physical training, I get fat, I get big and I put too much muscle on, whereas Strictly is going to keep me fit, it’s going to be a change of stimulus.
“I’m going to do stuff I’ve never done before and hopefully, have a lot of fun.
“I’ve swum for seven years and gone through the constant cycle of championship, go back to training, back to the drawing board, another championship and another championship, but I’ve never been truly uncomfortable.
“So this is going to be very interesting, I going to be very uncomfortable – literally like, so uncomfortable!
“I’m not very fluid on land. I’m very good in the water, I’m very good on breaststroke, on land it’s a very very different story, so I’m looking forward to how those skills can transfer.”
Adam will be competing against McFly frontman Tom Fletcher, BBC Breakfast presenter Dan Walker, Coronation Street actor, Katie McGlynn, businesswoman Sara Davies MBE who is a regular on Dragon’s Den, as well as actor and comedian Robert Webb, actor Greg Wise, former England rugby star Ugo Monye, Eastenders actor Rose Ayling-Ellis, CBBC’s Tilly Ramsey, The Voice presenter AJ Odudu, alongside Eastenders and movie actor Nina Wadia, TV chef John Waite, comedian Judi Love and CBBC presenter Rhys Stephenson.
In March the professional dancers were confirmed as Aljaž Skorjanec, Gorka Marquez, Giovanni Pernice, Amy Dowden, Nadiya Bychkova, Janette Manrara, Dianne Buswell, Graziano Di Prima, Johannes Radebe, Karen Hauer, Katya Jones, Luba Muchtuk, Nancy Xu, Neil Jones, reigning pro-champion Oti Mabuse and the only professional dancer to appear in every series of Strictly Come Dancing, Anton Du Beke.
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