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British swimmer Tom Dean has said he will be in this year’s Strictly Come Dancing line-up – the first celebrity to announce their participation.
Dean, 24, helped Team GB retain their men’s 4x200m freestyle title at the Paris Olympics earlier this week, and will feature in the men’s 200m individual medley final on Friday.
“Naturally you want to take a break after you’ve had a full Olympic cycle and the opportunity arose,” he said of Strictly, according to the PA news agency.
“I thought it would be really exciting to try something a bit different.”
The BBC has not confirmed Dean’s appearance, and a spokesperson said “celebrity contestants for this year will be announced in due course”.
The contestants are expected to be officially named soon, and are usually announced by the BBC on TV or radio shows.
Three-time Olympic champion Dean will be the ninth swimmer to do Strictly, and said he would seek out wisdom from fellow British swimmer Adam Peaty, who finished ninth on the dance show in 2021.
“I’ve not seen [Adam] yet. He did brilliantly on it so I’ll be getting a few tips from him, for sure,” he said.
On Tuesday, Dean, James Guy, Matt Richards and Duncan Scott made history in the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay final after being the first swimming team to ever to defend an Olympic relay title with the same quartet.
He admitted that he doesn’t “do too well out of water”, but was looking forward to “throwing myself into” the show.
He added that he “knows what a hard day’s training is like”.
Other celebrities who have been rumoured to be joining this year’s series include Ted Lasso star Hannah Waddingham, DIY SOS presenter Nick Knowles and former Arsenal player Paul Merson.
Strictly controversy
Dean’s announcement comes amid a storm of controversy over the treatment of some contestants on the BBC show.
An investigation, launched by the BBC following allegations made about Giovanni Pernice by former dance partner Amanda Abbington, will reportedly be concluded soon.
The Sherlock actress told BBC Radio 4’s Women’s Hour on Friday that their rehearsals would sometimes “descend into chaos”.
“I was trying my best and I know I don’t deserve to be spoken to like that. I was coming into the rehearsal room with a positive outlook to do my best, and that was not being reciprocated,” she said.
“I recognised the red flags and bad behaviour because it’s happened in the past,” she added.
The 50-year-old added: “I don’t think women should have to go through this and we should be able to say, ‘This behaviour is affecting me and someone needs to do something about it’.”
The Italian professional dancer has rejected allegations of “threatening or abusive behaviour”.
The dancer’s spokesperson said: “We would urge people to wait for the review’s conclusion and not to pay heed to these very serious and defamatory allegations that have no evidence in support of them.”
Pernice and another professional dancer, Graziano Di Prima, have both left the show.
Di Prima’s spokesman admitted the dancer kicked his partner Zara McDermott in a rehearsal last year.
Di Prima has said he deeply regrets “the events that led to my departure from Strictly”, and that his “intense passion and determination to win might have affected my training regime”.
