Tom Dean broke Strictly Come Dancing rules before the show had even begun
Tom Dean, the 24-year-old swimming champion, shared his plans to join Strictly Come Dancing after his impressive show at the Olympics in Paris. Stepping into team mate Adam Peaty's dancing shoes, who competed on BBC's popular dance competition in 2021, Tom confirmed his participation soon after he secured a place in the men's 200 metres individual medley finals - despite the BBC show keeping its whole line-up under wraps before the official launch.
Taking inspiration from his Team GB companion Adam, 29, who enjoyed a successful stint and finished ninth alongside Katya Jones on the show in 2021, Tom 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."
Expressing his enthusiasm for the show, he said: "I've not seen [Adam] yet. He did brilliantly on it so I'll be getting a few tips from him, for sure."
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Tom was the first celeb to confirm his spot on the 2024 series - in fact, all the others managed to keep quiet about the participation. The series this year will mark 20 years of the show and returns to our screens on Saturday.
Despite being a swimming sensation for the UK, Tom confessed he's not quite as confident without the support of water, reports the Mirror. He shared: "I don't do too well out of water in gravity sports. 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. 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."
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At Tokyo 2020, Tom clinched the men's 200m freestyle gold, and just this week, alongside teammates James Guy, Matt Richards, and Duncan Scott, he made waves in the men's 4x200m freestyle relay final. The team struck gold, marking a historic moment as they defended their Olympic relay title with the same lineup.
The buzz around Tom's Strictly reveal comes amidst a whirlwind of controversy surrounding the BBC show's treatment of its stars. An alleged internal probe by the BBC, sparked by accusations from Amanda Abbington, 50, against her ex-dance partner Giovanni Pernice, 33, is expected to announce its findings soon.
Amanda has levelled claims of "bullying" and "aggressive behaviour" at Giovanni, whom she danced with on last year's Strictly. Giovanni, on his part, has refuted any allegations of "abusive or threatening behaviour".
The BBC responded with a statement after Amanda's revealing interview on Channel 4 News last week, saying: "Anyone involved in a complaint has a right to confidentiality and fair process and therefore it would be inappropriate to comment further on individuals. However, when issues are raised with us we always take them extremely seriously and have appropriate processes in place to manage this. As we have said before, we would urge people not to indulge in speculation."
They added, "More generally, the BBC and BBC Studios takes duty of care extremely seriously. Our processes on Strictly Come Dancing are updated every year, they are kept under constant review and last week we announced additional steps to further strengthen welfare and support on the show."