Daring to finish SAS challenge was like my gold medal win
Lauren’s joy after TV triumph
PARALYMPIAN Lauren Steadman says her Celebrity SAS triumph gave her the same sense of satisfaction as becoming a world champion athlete.
Lauren and DJ Locksmith, from the band Rudimental, were the only two to pass the full course in last night’s final episode, after 48 hours of hell in the Inner Hebrides.
Afterwards she compared it to the elation she felt winning her swimming gold medal at the World Championships in Rio in 2009.
Lauren, 27, who has also had success as a paratriathlete, said: “It was totally different from anything I’ve done… but a similar feeling to when I won my first world title.
“Obviously, I’ve worked for years to win a world title, but it did feel as though I exhausted all sources of energy I had in those eight days.
“There was nothing more I could have given, so when they said I had passed it did feel like that moment someone puts a gold medal around your neck and you hear the national anthem.”
Over the course of the final two days, the last six recruits, including actress Nikki Sanderson, reality star Joey Essex, TV presenter Helen Skelton and former boxer Tony Bellew, were interrogated using horrendous torture techniques.
But despite the physical and mental pressure piled on by Ant Middleton and co, Lauren says she never considered walking away.
STRESS
She said: “Quitting didn’t cross my mind once. Frustration sometimes because they’re inflicting pain or want to break you.
“They like putting you in situations that stress you out physically or mentally. Whatever it is, I could always see, I guess, the silver lining.
“I think that comes from the training I’ve had as an athlete, when you go into a performance, you can’t control anything, other than what you give.”
Lauren, who reached the semifinals on Strictly Come Dancing with AJ Pritchard in 2018, also wanted to show once more her disability is no barrier to success.
She said: “I’ve got the utmost respect anyway for people who go through athletic training, SAS training, military training, or just pushing themselves outside their own comfort zones by going on a show like Strictly.
“You go on TV, you’ve got millions of people watching and you’ve never done this before.
“So, this was a similar feeling. I mean this is the total opposite of Strictly – there’s no glitter, there’s no glam. It’s grit factor.
“I wanted to show people that just your true grit and determination can get you really far.”
Locksmith said the show had made him reconsider his desire to quit his drum and bass band.
He said: “That was nothing to do with the Rudimental boys, it was just the stresses of touring, being away from my family and everything was getting really tough.
“SAS has kept me plugging away at Rudimental and every time I feel I want to leave, I just feel like I’ve been through a world of s***. I can achieve anything.”