Bounding into the Ballroom... it’s Iwan Thomas!

Fleet-of-foot and hunky with it, we are very pleased to welcome into the Strictly family former Olympic athlete and TV presenter Iwan Thomas.

Iwan’s incredible sporting career saw the Farnborough born athlete win plenty of honours, including a silver medal in the 4x400m relay at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, gold in the same event at the 1997 World Championships in Athens, as well as individual golds at the 1998 European Championship and Commonwealth Games. He is still the British 400m record holder, with a time of 44.36 seconds.

A natural athlete from an early age, Iwan was not only good at track and field, he also excelled at rugby union, and had trials for England schoolboys.

His other passion during his school days was BMX racing, and he managed to become the fourth best rider in Europe - is there no end to his talents?

Since hanging up his running spikes, Iwan has carved out a very successful career as a TV presenter. He was part of Channel 4’s presenting team for the London 2012 Paralympics, he has also worked on Crufts 2015 with Clare Balding, and pursued his love of all things motorbikes by being part of BT Sport’s MotoGP coverage.

The 41-year-old is a big Strictly fan and admits he has always fancied strutting his stuff on the dancefloor:

“I’ve always thought I would love to take part…it’s just a shame I can’t dance!”

But Iwan is being slightly modest about his dance history as we dug deeper into his past:

“When I was 12 every Friday at school I unofficially entered breakdancing competitions at lunch breaks, and that’s where my dance experience ended until about 20 years later! I did Let's Dance for Sports Relief and vowed never to dance live on TV again.... ooops!”

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