Peaty on his marks for Strictly and hopes his hips stay fluid!
SWIM ACE ADAM MAKES HIS DEBUT ON BBC1 SHOW TONIGHT
OLYMPIAN Adam Peaty has admitted his swimming skills may hinder him on Strictly Come Dancing when it returns to our screens tonight – but said he hopes his hips will be “quite fluid”.
The three-time Olympic champion, who specialises in breaststroke, signed up for the BBC One show following his golden triumphs at the Tokyo Games this summer.
The 26-year-old will be swapping swimming strokes for ballroom moves as he joins the celebrity line-up with the likes of Tom Fletcher, Robert Webb, Dan Walker and Nina Wadia.
After having to run as a limited series last year amid lockdown, the show will return at full capacity this year, with more contestants taking part and the return of all the show’s themed weeks.
Asked if his swimming skills will help or hinder him, he said: “Probably hinder because I’m used to being in the water, I’m not used to being on land against gravity.
“But my hips are hopefully going to be quite fluid.”
Peaty added that his years of swimming training might help, saying: “The swimming training is one of the hardest sports as I’m used to going up and down the lane for four hours a day and then going to the gym for two hours.
“It’s quite tedious but, for me, dancing is music and extremely hard. But I like that. I’ve trained my mind and body for a long time to make sure I can put the hard work to use.” Peaty said he dances “all the time” and that he hopes to bring some humour to his routines.
He added: “That’s my personality.
I don’t take life too seriously and, as long as the sun rises, we’ve got another opportunity to have a laugh, so we’ll see.”
The sportsman also admitted that his history of winning gold does add
“a little bit” more pressure. Obviously people are expecting me to work hard and train hard, which I do; I really like training hard.
“But because I’ve won pretty much every competition I’ve been into in sport, but going into this is very different. I have no idea what to expect, no idea.”
The gold medallist said he likes ballroom-style dancing and is a fan of classical music, but he is nervous about the Latin routines due to their fluidity, saying he is “high energy” so he is “going to go for it”.
Strictly Come Dancing is on BBC1 at 7.45pm tonight.