Olympian Adam Peaty has admitted his swimming skills may hinder him on Strictly Come Dancing but said he hopes his hips will be “quite fluid”.
The three-time Olympic champion, who specialises in breaststroke, signed up for the BBC One show following his triumphs at the Tokyo Games over the summer.
The 26-year-old will be swapping swimming strokes for ballroom moves as he joins the celebrity line-up.
Asked if his swimming skills will help or hinder him, he said: “Probably hinder because I’m used to being in the water, I’m not used to being on land against gravity.
“But my hips are hopefully going to be quite fluid.”
Peaty added that his years of swimming training might help, saying: “The swimming training is one of the hardest sports as I’m used to going up and down the lane for four hours a day and then going to the gym for two hours.
“It’s quite tedious but, for me, dancing is music and extremely hard. But I like that. I’ve trained my mind and body for a long time to make sure I can put the hard work to use.”
Peaty said he dances “all the time” and that he hopes to bring some humour to his routines.
He added: “That’s my personality. I don’t take life too seriously and, as long as the sun rises, we’ve got another opportunity to have a laugh, so we’ll see.”
The sportsman also admitted that his history of winning gold does add “a little bit” more pressure.
“Obviously people are expecting me to work hard and train hard, which I do; I really like training hard, but because I’ve won pretty much every competition I’ve been into in sport, but going into this is very different.
“I have no idea what to expect, no idea.”
The gold medallist said he likes ballroom-style dancing and is a fan of classical music, but he is nervous about the Latin routines due to their fluidity, saying he is “high energy” so he is “going to go for it”.
– Strictly Come Dancing returns to BBC One on September 18.