Strictly Come Dancing's first celebrity contestant for 2024 series revealed

Nicky Morris
·2-min read
Strictly Come Dancing logo
Strictly Come Dancing logo (BBC)

Olympic swimmer Tom Dean is swapping the swimming pool for the ballroom. The 24-year-old announced that he has signed up for the upcoming series of Strictly Come Dancing.

Tom shared the exciting news after reaching the final of the men's 200 metres individual medley at the Olympic Games in Paris on Thursday night.

Tom Dean on Good Morning Britain' TV show, London, UK - 13 Aug 2021
Tom Dean has signed up for the next series of Strictly (Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock)

The three-time Olympic champion is hoping to follow in the footsteps of his teammate Adam Peaty, who was paired with Katya Jones for the 2021 series.

He said: "Naturally you want to take a break after you've had a full Olympic cycle and the opportunity arose. I thought it would be really exciting to try something a bit different.

"I'll be doing that and straight back into training after it. It's something to look forward to."

Adam Peaty and Katya Jones
Tom will follow in his teammate Adam Peaty's footsteps (@katyajones/Instagram)

Tom continued: "I've not seen (Adam) yet. He did brilliantly on it so I'll be getting a few tips from him, for sure."

While he's confident of his abilities in the pool, Tom is a little apprehensive about how he'll fare on the dance floor.

"I don't do too well out of water in gravity sports," he said. "I'm throwing myself into it and I know what a hard day's training is like so I'm looking forward to it. I guess we'll find out.

tom dean
Tom with his mum Jacquie Hughes in 2021

"It's something to look forward to and once I finish this, back home, relax a bit with the family and then we crack on end of August time. It's exciting."

Tom made his Olympic debut at the 2020 Tokyo Games, where he won the men's 200m freestyle title. Earlier this week, the swimmer, from Maidenhead, alongside James Guy, Matt Richards and Duncan Scott made history in the men's 4x200m freestyle relay final.

Tom's announcement comes amid a turbulent time for Strictly, which has come under fire in recent months over the treatment of celebrity contestants.

Giovanni Pernice on Lorraine TV show, London, UK - 19 Mar 2024
Giovanni Pernice was axed from the pro line-up this summer (Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock)

Professional dancers Giovanni Pernice and Graziano Di Prima have been axed from the professional line-up. While Giovanni has denied "any suggestion of abusive or threatening behaviour", a spokesperson for Graziano said he "made a mistake" by kicking his former celebrity dancer partner, Zara McDermott. 

The results of an internal investigation, launched by the BBC following allegations made about Giovanni by his former celebrity partner Amanda Abbington, will reportedly be published this week.