I had operations on my feet and hands, then I got cancer. I couldn’t face the treatment but Mum told me I would die
think it was for him. But finally he was persuaded to give it a go.
“I went to a training camp and lost every single match,” he laughs. “It was really hard but it made me want to play more and get better.”
In the run-up to Beijing 2008, when he was 19, Will was “reclassified” into a more able group, having previously worked his way to becoming one of the world’s best.
“One of the coaches said I should retire because physically it wouldn’t really be possible for me to compete in the category above,” he remembers. “It was tough – I lost every single match in Beijing 2008 and went from being number five in the world to number 57.”
Will trained for six hours a day and gave up his place at the BRIT School, where he had started studying acting, in order to move to Sheffield and focus fully on London 2012.
He made it all the way to the final but was beaten by Germany’s Jochen Wollmert.
“It spurred me on for Rio,” says Will. “After being beaten I was really motivated to go and win the gold.” In 2016, he did just that, coming home to be awarded an MBE for his efforts, which he collected from Prince William the following year. When he wins, Will remembers the schoolkids and coaches who didn’t believe in him. “Wanting to prove people wrong is a massive motivation.” Which brings us back to Strictly, for which he has had special shoes made aid balance.
“My feet were totally back to front when I was born, because of the joints,” he explains. “They had to break them and put them straight – they’re covered in scars where they have been rebuilt with rods.
“But somehow now I’m dancing so they must have done a good job!” Paired with show favourite Janette, the couple have worked tirelessly to perfect their routines, managing scores of 24 for their salsa in week two and 23 for last weekend’s paso doble. But it was with his opening dance that Will really got everyone’s attention, performing a quickstep which earned him 26 points and led judge Shirley Ballas to declare: “What disability? What limitations? That was to his absolutely off the charts.”
Tonight’s foxtrot has proved the hardest yet. “It’s such a technical dance and it’s slow and it shows off my struggles really,” he sighs.
“When we’re dancing a bit faster I can bluff my way through it, when it’s slow you can see my balance problems. I haven’t got any ankles so the rise and fall is impossible.”
But Will is loving the backing he is receiving from viewers.
“The support has been phenomenal – I never expected it,” he marvels. “I have had parents who’ve written to me with children who have it in all four limbs and they’ve said ‘we weren’t sure if our son or our little girl was going to be able to walk and now we’re seeing someone with arthrogryposis dancing’. That makes me feel good.”
His own daughter, with ex-partner
ON TRYING TO DO TONIGHT’S FOXTROT
Fiona
York, is proving harder to impress.
“Bella has just turned two. She’s amazing but when I’m on
TV she still wants to watch
Peppa Pig.”
He and actress/model Fiona have an amicable relationship despite no longer being a couple, with Will seeing Bella at weekends.
Once Strictly is over, the Paralympian has his sights set on retaining his gold medal in Tokyo next year, and he hopes to compete in Paris 2024.
But it’s clear that whatever medals – or glitterballs – he clinches in the future, Will is very much winning at life, every single day.
■ Strictly Come Dancing is on BBC1, tonight at 6.40pm.
I haven’t got ankles.. for me, the rise & fall you need is impossible WILL BAYLEY