Strictly Come Dancing star 'nervous' but says 'what a team'

Tom Dean during the BMW PGA Championship Pro-AM at Wentworth Golf Club, Virginia Water, Surrey. Picture date: Wednesday September 18, 2024. PA Photo. See PA story GOLF Wentworth. Photo credit should read: Zac Goodwin/PA Wire.
-Credit: (Image: PA)


Olympic Gold Medallist Tom Dean has been left ‘nervous’ ahead of taking part in a major competition. But it wasn’t Strictly Come Dancing that the swimmer was referring to.

The 24-year-old who lives and trains in Bath will be shopping the googles for the sequins when he takes to the floor as the hit BBC One show returns tonight. But beforehand, he has been taking part in the BMW PGA Championship pro-am at Wentworth . The annual event is the curtain-raiser for the DP World Tour tournament that follows, with top pros grouped alongside some of the world’s most famous names.

Taking to Instagram, Dean said: “What a day, what a team! Dream course ticked off and what better event to do it at,” posting a picture of himself with his team mates, as well as a picture of him teeing off. Which he captioned on his Instagram story saying ‘This doesn’t show the nerves’.

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Along with partner Nadiya Bychkova, the Olympic swimmer Tom Dean will perform the Tango to Golden by Harry Styles.

Ahead of the show, speaking to the Radio Times, Dean said: “I always knew I was going to have a long break after the Paris Olympics. An Olympics cycle is always quite long, and it's a lot of sacrifice. You're in one place six days a week. I want to go to LA and represent Team GB there and hopefully win medals again. But to keep longevity within the sport, I need to do something different, because I want to get back to being really hungry for it. And this is about as far away from the pool you can get!

“I said if the opportunity for Strictly came up, I'd 100 per cent love to do it. I've been using a whole different group of muscles for it. My shins are sore, and I've never been sore in my shins in my life. Swimming and dancing are both sports, but with dancing, you obviously have to add a bit more flair. When you're working hard in the pool, you can be grimacing, and no one will know! I'm going to bring the same training and work ethic, but instead of doing 5,000 metres in a pool, it's 5,000 steps instead.”

He added: I've spent too long in the pool and not enough time on land! I couldn't be taught by anyone better – a world champion. With the ballroom stuff, because we're both quite tall, we can make it look quite flowy and float across the floor, which should be quite good.”

On his prior dance experience, he said: “When I was four or five years old, I was in a ballet class with my sisters and I was the only lad. There's a video of it and I've got this white vest on, little shorts, and I've still got the ballet shoes. They're tiny. I was just tiptoeing along. All I remember is: "Good toes, bad toes."

Week one of Strictly Come Dancing series 22 will air on BBC One and iPlayer at 7pm on Saturday September 21.