Strictly's Tom Dean has a secret weapon he'll be relying on for the rest of the series

Olympic champion Tom Dean is making waves on the dance floor, having signed up to showcase his fancy footwork on this years Strictly Come Dancing.

The 24-year-old swimmer, who triumphed at the Paris 2024 Olympics with a gold medal, has decided against taking it easy for the remainder of the year. Instead, he's up for the challenge of live television performances weekly.

When asked about his new venture, Dean, who trains in Bath, was eager: "I thought it would be really exciting to try something a bit different."

READ MORE:Strictly Come Dancing suffers 'disaster' as viewers 'switch off'

READ MORE:Peter Andre shares parenting frustration as he opens up on 'bonkers' school run

While Tom is sure to have an edge with his athletic build and endurance for the rigorous training sessions on Strictly, his secret source of support will be his mum Jacquie.

This isn't just backstage support; back in a 2021 interview with Hello!, Tom lauded his mother, a single parent raising five children for a decade, as being instrumental to his sporting accomplishments, reports the Mirror.

Tom even assigned shared ownership of his medals to his mum, acknowledging that without her, those early morning training sessions during his teenage years would have been impossible.

Tom expressed immense appreciation for his mother: "I owe a massive debt of gratitude to my mum," he revealed. "I was a lazy teenager and she got me up early on those dark winter mornings when it was the last thing I wanted to do."

However, before Tom could wow audiences with his dances, he experienced a minor hiccup. He inadvertently announced his participation in Strictly before the BBC had officially released the contestant line-up during an Olympic interview.

In a conversation with RadioTimes, he revealed that although the show's producers didn't consider it a major issue, he did receive a 'little slap on the wrist' for prematurely disclosing the news.

He reminisced: "I'd literally got the call one minute before racing an Olympic final, so that was kind of what was going through my mind," and added, "Then I got fired that Strictly question so I wasn't really dialled in on what I should be saying."