Getty PicturesBritish swimmer Tom Dean has stated he shall be on this yr’s Strictly Come Dancing line-up – the primary superstar to announce their participation.
Dean, 24, helped Group GB retain their males’s 4x200m freestyle title on the Paris Olympics earlier this week, and can function within the males’s 200m particular person medley ultimate on Friday.
“Naturally you need to take a break after you’ve got had a full Olympic cycle and the chance arose,” he stated of Strictly, based on the PA information company.
“I believed it might be actually thrilling to attempt one thing a bit completely different.”
The BBC has not confirmed Dean’s look, and a spokesperson stated “superstar contestants for this yr shall be introduced in the end”.
The contestants are anticipated to be formally named quickly, and are often introduced by the BBC on TV or radio exhibits.
Three-time Olympic champion Dean would be the ninth swimmer to do Strictly, and stated he would search out knowledge from fellow British swimmer Adam Peaty, who completed ninth on the dance present in 2021.
“I’ve not seen [Adam] but. He did brilliantly on it so I will be getting just a few suggestions from him, for positive,” he stated.
On Tuesday, Dean, James Man, Matt Richards and Duncan Scott made historical past within the males’s 4x200m freestyle relay ultimate after being the primary swimming workforce to ever to defend an Olympic relay title with the identical quartet.
He admitted that he does not “do too nicely out of water”, however was wanting ahead to “throwing myself into” the present.
He added that he “is aware of what a tough day’s coaching is like”.
Different celebrities who’ve been rumoured to be becoming a member of this yr’s sequence embrace Ted Lasso star Hannah Waddingham, DIY SOS presenter Nick Knowles and former Arsenal participant Paul Merson.
Strictly controversy
Dean’s announcement comes amid a storm of controversy over the remedy of some contestants on the BBC present.
An investigation, launched by the BBC following allegations made about Giovanni Pernice by former dance companion Amanda Abbington, will reportedly be concluded quickly.
The Sherlock actress advised BBC Radio 4’s Girls’s Hour on Friday that their rehearsals would generally “descend into chaos”.
“I used to be attempting my greatest and I do know I do not should be spoken to love that. I used to be coming into the rehearsal room with a constructive outlook to do my greatest, and that was not being reciprocated,” she stated.
“I recognised the crimson flags and dangerous behaviour as a result of it is occurred prior to now,” she added.
The 50-year-old added: “I do not assume girls ought to should undergo this and we should always be capable of say, ‘This behaviour is affecting me and somebody must do one thing about it’.”
The Italian skilled dancer has rejected allegations of “threatening or abusive behaviour”.
The dancer’s spokesperson stated: “We’d urge folks to attend for the evaluation’s conclusion and to not pay heed to those very critical and defamatory allegations that don’t have any proof in help of them.”
Pernice and one other skilled dancer, Graziano Di Prima, have each left the present.
Di Prima’s spokesman admitted the dancer kicked his companion Zara McDermott in a rehearsal final yr.
Di Prima has stated he deeply regrets “the occasions that led to my departure from Strictly”, and that his “intense ardour and dedication to win may need affected my coaching regime”.
