Strictly Come Dancing contestant Montell Douglas made it through the dreaded dance-off for the second time.
The 38-year-old athlete received 35 points for her Salsa with Johannes Radebe to Don't Leave Me This Way by Thelma Houston, bagging fourth place on the leader board. But the couple failed to win enough votes from Strictly viewers to avoid the bottom two, forcing them to dance again to progress through to this week.
Montell made history two years ago as the first British woman to compete in both the Summer and Winter Olympics. She raced in the 100m sprint and 4x100m relay in Beijing in 2008, setting a British record of 11.05 seconds in the former, before competing in bobsleigh in the 2022 Winter Games, also in Beijing.
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PA)The star, who played Fire in the BBC's reboot of Gladiators, is now wowing viewers with her performances on Strictly. Montell revealed ahead of competing in the series she had split from her boyfriend earlier this year and says her dance partner Johannes is the only man in her life.
"He ticks every box that I could want anyway," she said, according to the Sun. "I don't know if I have a sexy side — I am quite awkward in myself but I am bubbly and I like to have a good time. I love to joke around. I have great banter with Johannes so that is the sexy side if there was one there."
Montell insists the Strictly curse is not to blame for her single status, saying: "I am single and very much not mingling because I don't have the time. There are so many things to think about with dancing."
And while the star's sporting prowess has been a help when it comes to her Strictly stamina, being a sprinting powerhouse doesn't help when it comes to trying to develop fluid hips on the dance floor. "Put me on a racetrack and I would excel," she explained. "But I can't do a marathon, a 5k or even a 1k race.
"I'm very much a power athlete. I've got quite a lot of muscle mass and I'm very stiff because that's what helps my power. So coming into something where you’ve got really fluid hips, you are on the balls of your feet..."
But the star's worst thing about the dance contest is the footwear. "So the hardest thing is not the routine – it’s the shoes," she told the Mirror. "It's doing it in a shoe that wants to break your foot. The shoe is designed to give you pain, which she does very well actually.
"Especially because I'm just not used to it. I'm living in high heels. It's like a night out where you have to keep your heels on all night. That's what it feels like."
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