Strictly Sports Stars
Denise Lewis, Colin Jackson, Matt Dawson, Mark Ramprakash, Darren Gough, Austin Healey (I hope I haven’t missed any out) – all sporting celebrities who have shown that along with their athletic prowess, they are not bad at dancing either.
Over the 6 years that Strictly Come Dancing has been on air, half the finals of the talent show have featured at least one top class athlete , showing that sporting ability is not only confined to the arena, but the dance floor too.
There have of course been exceptions, like there are to any rule of thumb, Mark Foster being the first to spring to mind. He may be one of most successful swimmers ever, but last year his naked torso proved more of a hit than his latin and ballroom moves.
In general though our sports stars have had no problems in turning their hands to the Salsa or the Foxtrot, being scored highly by the judges.
Competitive Nature
The natural ability to dance that these athletes have portrayed has often been put down to a competitive streak and the discipline to train hard that any world class performer needs.
This was seen to the full in former gymnast and broadcaster Gabby Logan, who made no effort to hide her competitive nature and no secret of the fact that she wanted to win, but unfortunately she was voted off in the early rounds of the competition.
There must certainly be some truth in this though. An inbuilt desire to be the best at something and to compete against the perfectionist within can’t fail to transform a beginner into a dancing queen (or king).
And it is no coincidence that some of the competitions greatest dancers, both to win and not to win, have come from a background of sporting pedigree.
This years’ contestants
The 2009 sporting line up included Martina Hingis, once considered one of the greatest tennis players of all time before her alleged cocaine disgrace, World Champion boxer Joe Calzaghe, jockey Richard Dunwoody, long jumper Jade Johnson, cricket star Phil Tufnell and failed cricketer turned BBC sports journalist Chris Hollins.
In an unusual twist to the Strictly tale, half of these sporting greats were eliminated in the early rounds for being, well, a little bit rubbish at dancing. Thereby not aiding my theory about the link between sport and dancing.
But never mind let’s just put these under the anomaly category and celebrate the fact that Johnson, Hollins and Tuffers are still fighting it out, improving round by round and flying the flag for the sporting world.
Ok so the two men aren’t exactly what you would describe as natural dancers, Phil Tuffnels attempt at the Rumba this week was certainly an interesting one. But they have still been performing considerably above the average and are getting better all the time.
Chris Hollins has had a shaky competition so far but was praised by the judges last night scoring a really impressive score. Hopefully he can now become more consistent. If he is a failed sportsman then he will not want to be a failed dancer too.
Jade Johnson however is a different story. Having watched her perform an amazing Jive on Saturday night, which in my opinion was hugely under marked, the chance of seeing an athlete lift that glittering trophy once again is well and truly alive.
With 3 out of the 8 final contestants coming from a sporting background the odds on that happening are probably not too bad. If I was a betting woman I would say that a punt on Jade as the dark horse of the competition, could come up good.
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