Jody Cundy has lifted the lid on why he signed up for this year’s season of Strictly Come Dancing.
With just hours to go until we’re back in the ballroom for Strictly Come Dancing 2023, one of this year’s stars, Jody Cundy, has explained why he signed up to take part.
Cundy, a Paralympic cyclist and former swimmer, spoke with RadioTimes.com and other press ahead of the new season, and when asked how it feels to be taking part in the show, he said: “At the moment, I just ride a bike and I’ve swam and won a few medals, but to be invited to be one of the celebrities that means that [I] must have made it.
“Yeah, it’s a nice honour to do it and [it] gives me a great platform to help promote myself, disability sport, to get people up and off the sofas and kind of doing stuff that they never thought they could do because they’ll see somebody doing it with one leg.
“And if I can do that to help people it’s a fantastic opportunity to to be able to do something so, yeah, I’m looking forward to the whole process. But when they came ringing us, like Strictly don’t ring up everybody to ask them to do it, so it took a bit of thinking, but I gave in.”
Well I’ve pinched myself, checked this post, and that’s definitely still me in there, so guess that’s it! Bring on the sequins!!! Here we go 💃🕺 https://t.co/aDQkNUUqEs
— Jody Cundy CBE (@jodycundy) August 11, 2023
Cundy was also asked which was a tougher endeavour – competing in the Paralympics or taking part in Strictly.
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He responded: “Strictly is the most nerve racking of all of them. Like when it comes to the Paralympics. I’ve spent my life training to be in that moment. I know everything that’s going to happen on that bike, all the way around to the finish line. So I know how to control myself when I’ve got the crowd in the background.
“I don’t know how to dance and I am going to basically learn how to dance and show everybody how to do it in the space of about four or five days. So that’s terrifying. And then to know there’s going to be so many people watching it on TV and they’re going to give me feedback as well. That’s the next level of terrifying.”
One of Cundy’s co-stars in this year’s line-up is Channel 4 news broadcaster Krishnan Guru-Murthy, who recently revealed he said no to the show before, but said that he was “stupid” to do so.
Murthy said: “We only have one life, and you’ve got to grasp everything when it’s there. I’ve got a couple of health issues and all the rest of it, and I kind of think, ‘Well, if I if I don’t do it now, I might not be able to do it in three or four years’ time, so do it now.'”
Strictly Come Dancing starts at 6:35pm on 16th September on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
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