Yahoo News Gladiators saved Rebel from 'bad state' after being injured
Jennifer Stoute starred on the original series of Gladiators from 1996 until 1999
Gladiators star Rebel said the show come at a time when she was in a "bad state" after being left injured and unable to compete in track and field.
This year a spotlight has turned on the original stars of Gladiators after BBC decided to revamp the series that was cancelled in 1999. The rebooted Gladiators series returns for a second season early next year and a celebrity spin off is coming soon as interest around the original gladiators continues.
Athlete Rebel — whose real name is Jennifer Stoute — had an impressive sporting career before starring on the TV competition show. She represented Great Britain at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul and the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona — that's when she come home with a bronze medal in the 4x400 metres relay.
A hamstring injury derailed her sporting dreams and stopped her competing in track and field. In a new interview, Rebel revealed the injury left her in a "bad place" wondering what she could do at the time — especially as she was getting older.
"I was kind of in a bit of a bad state," she told The Sun. "I was thinking, what am I going to do? I love track and field but I’m not getting myself back into it, and I was getting older." That was when the opportunity to star on Gladiators came along.
Initially she had reservations about taking part on Gladiators because she didn't like the idea of jumping around in tight clothing. She said: "I remember thinking, 'I'm a serious athlete, I don't jump around in lycra — no way I'm going to do this show'."
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After conversations with friends in track and field, she had a change of heart and the rest is history. She added in conversation with the newspaper: "I trained and got myself ready, and when I got to the try-outs and was actually picked to be Rebel, I was like 'Wow, amazing!'"
Olympians Sharron Davies and Derek Redmond also starred on Gladiators.
The sports star — who has two daughters — had featured on ITV's original series of Gladiators from 1996 until 1999 when the show was cut. Previously she hailed Gladiators as a highlight of her life. It's been 25 years since she starred on the show.
Since then, she featured in movie Gladiators as a chariot driver. The long-awaited sequel is out at cinemas now, Gladiators II.
Gladiators left Rebel 'jobless without warning'
Earlier this year, Rebel claimed the ITV show Gladiators ended "without warning". The gladiator remembered being on the plane back from a holiday in Mauritius with Ulrika Jonsson when the show's host got the call saying Gladiators was over — leaving them both devastated.
She told The Mirror: "[Ulrika] said 'Jennifer do you know that we haven't got a job?' I said, 'What do you mean?' She said, 'My agent's just said that Gladiators has finished'.
"And I was like, 'What?' It just finished like that without even giving us a warning. There was no kind of like 'oh we're not gonna do [a] next series' or anything."
She added: "[So I found out] on a plane back from holiday. I think it might have been the beginning of 2000 or the end of 1999 but it was after we did our last show. And Ulrika [just said on holiday], 'Oh just to let you know we're unemployed'."
Its final episode played out on our screens at home in 2000.
