Strictly star Sam Quek reveals she has 'alter ego' who gets her through Saturday nights

She’s sparkling on the Strictly dancefloor, but Sam Quek has spent most of her life sweating in sportswear. So it is no surprise that swapping trainers for high heels came as a bit of a culture shock to the Olympic gold medal-winning hockey star.

But after six weeks, Sam is finding her feet on the show – with a little bit of help from her alter ego. The 36-year-old says: “You have to become a character because people are watching and it’s an entertainment show, and you want to entertain and you want to do the dance justice.

“If I dance as Sam, it’s just a bit like we’re girls on a night out, but now we have ‘Samantha’ [with a Latin twang]. Samantha, who’s a little bit more like, ‘ooh’. And also, I think I’ve never really celebrated my body as a woman before, I don’t think.

“I’ve never really looked at myself and gone, ‘oh, there’s my curves’ and touched around my hips and my waist. So it’s actually been quite a little bit of a revelation, actually. I think women don’t celebrate their bodies enough.”

Sam adds: “Strictly is definitely empowering because I’ve always been a bit embarrassed. Don’t be too sexy, that’s just always been in me, really. But I think being in this environment, you know, every body shape, personality, styles are celebrated. So it’s the perfect environment to really come out and give that sass because people around you are like, ‘yes, Sam, go on’.”

Last week, Sam’s dance with pro partner Nikita Kuzmin didn’t go completely according to plan, with the judges noting she was a “little off” in the quickstep routine. But the pair still earned 26 out of 40 from the judges, and the public helped get them through to this weekend’s Halloween-themed show.

As the series begins to get more competitive, Sam admits she will be taking it seriously, starting tonight with a jive to Time Warp from the Rocky Horror Picture Show. She says: “It’s one of the most amazing things I’ve done. It’s been tough, but I’ve loved every minute of it. And when I say tough, the amount of information, the way I’ve been able to push my body to different kind of levels, I think. I was only having a conversation this morning about how different it is to anything I’ve ever done. Because with sport, it’s quite quick. With dance, it’s so precise, and it’s movements to the nth degree.”

Defender Sam retired from hockey after winning gold with Team GB at Rio de Janeiro in 2016. Since then, she and her property tycoon husband Tom Mairs, who appeared on Secret Millionaire in 2010, have two children – Molly, three, and Isaac, two.

She says the mindset which drove her success on the field can be useful on the Strictly dancefloor. “It’s nice to be an athlete again,” she adds. “I’ve had two kids since actually being an Olympic athlete, so I’m taking longer to recover. But, yeah, just putting those habits, that knowledge that I gained over the years and in my degree back into practice, it’s been good fun.

“And the hunger, as in the actually being able to eat a lot of food in one sitting and having that ‘I am starving’ feeling back. I really like food, so that’s a good thing! I’ve always got that competitive nature, whether I’m playing hide and seek with the kids or here at Strictly.

I’m competitive, I have to be careful at times because I do get very frustrated if it’s not clicking as quick as it should. I just want to get it right, I want to learn and then I want to move on to the next thing. So I think it’s helpful, but it could also be a bit of a detriment, but that’s when Nikita comes in and tells me just to chill out. We’ve always said it’s about the process. I don’t think I’m going to win but I have an expectation in myself to work hard and put myself out there and just see what happens.”

Sam and Nikita take the Strictly bubble to extremes, blocking out the friends and family in the crowd which other partnerships use to spur them on. For Sam, it is about staying in the moment. She explains: “We have a breathing routine before we go on. So we hold hands, we do three deep breaths, give each other a hug, and then we do it again when we actually get on the floor.

“And one thing that Nikita put into place from day one, which really works for me, is just staying with him, staying in our bubble, because as soon I personally start looking at all the faces looking at me, the music, the lights, the cameras, you start getting really overwhelmed.”

But once the weekend shows are over, Sam has time to catch up with Tom, Molly and Isaac. Growing up on the Wirral, Sam remembers being sneered at for “not looking like a hockey player”, and feared being labelled a bore for spending her time training and playing. She says: “People had that mindset because actually they didn’t see women playing sport.

“It wasn’t on telly, it wasn’t in magazines, it wasn’t anywhere. I had no female idols to look up to until Kelly Holmes went and won gold. So I think that’s changed now. Growing up through the generations where sport wasn’t cool for women and girls, it was a really tough transition, so I really hope I can keep sport in the limelight. Doing things like Strictly shows you can be glam and be sporty. I’m really passionate about that.”

• Strictly Come Dancing continues on BBC1 tonight at 6.25pm.