Olympic champion Tabby Stoecker has admitted she feels "tired and vulnerable" as she prepares for her Strictly Come Dancing samba routine, a stark contrast to last week's intense Argentine tango which saw her soar to joint-second on the leaderboard.
The 25-year-old British gold medallist is getting into the character of Grammy-winner RAYE for Icons Week, performing a fun Latin routine to the viral hit "Where Is My Husband!" alongside pro partner Mark Karmalita, 22.
Learning to get out of her head
Speaking about her training, Tabby told the Mirror: "I'm loving it. How can you not? I'm on Strictly, it's so much fun, but of course it's hard. It is challenging. You are pushing yourself, and a lot of the time I'm tired and feeling a bit vulnerable and embarrassed trying to shake it in a dance studio."
She added: "I'm really having to get out of my head and try and go through the process of dancing and let it be this joyful thing rather than get too bogged down in in all the steps and the pressure. I think for me personally, I always find dances where you have to really give a lot of energy a bit more challenging because that's not what I'm used to."
Support for Delta Goodrem
One celebrity who won't be taking part in Icons Week is Delta Goodrem, 41, after she was forced to pull out of this weekend's show following a broken rib. The Strictly favourite is hoping to recover in time for next week, otherwise she will be forced to leave the competition completely, as per BBC rules.
Tabby said of Delta, who was going to transform into icon Dolly Parton: "It's so gutting. We're all hoping that she has a speedy recovery. She's an absolute trooper, she's such a strong woman. You know with doing something so physical that there's always a chance of injury. It's just really sad that it's happened to her at this point, but I'm sure she's going to recover really fast. We're all sending her so much love and healing energy. We want to see her back as quickly as possible because also she just brings such great energy when we're in the studio!"
Addressing her own fears of injury as an athlete, Tabby said she tries not to think about it too much otherwise she'll just "worry unnecessarily". She added: "I haven't worried about it any more than I usually would because we have such a great team and there's a fabulous support network here, and as long as you're eating well and sleeping well and looking after yourself, you can always do things to mitigate. Of course, there is always a risk that you can hurt yourself when you're pushing yourself physically."
Coming out of her shell
Tabby said she has enjoyed exploring a different side to herself and admits family and friends have said they don't recognise her on screen. "My family have loved it," she said. "They're so supportive. They really got behind me. I love the reaction from my niece and nephew seeing me on the telly, and they're wanting to learn how to dance now too. So that's been really sweet."
She added: "A lot of people have told me that they can't even recognise me - the person that they know and then the person they're seeing on the telly, the confidence that I'm bringing like the showing other sides of myself. I think a lot of people in my life have been so pleasantly surprised at the way I'm coming out of my shell."
Tabby said she has discovered a lot about herself on the show: "I'm learning to overcome a lot of things that I didn't even realise I was facing before. The whole imposter syndrome thing was really real for me at the beginning of this, and I still feel it sometimes. But I'm learning how to be more comfortable in my own skin, and dancing helps with that because you're standing in front of a mirror. There's nowhere to hide. You have to give it everything, and you also have to be comfortable failing and looking silly and feeling embarrassed and doing things anyway. I think I'm used to confronting fear, but not confronting embarrassment and doing something silly."
Mark, one of five new Strictly pro dancers announced earlier this year, said he has been trying to take it one step at a time as his life is a world away from what it was a year ago. "I feel like if you try and take it all in at once, it's very overwhelming," he said. "But every single day I can't believe that this is actually my life."
Viewers witnessed Tabby's fearlessness first hand as she performed on an aerial hoop during the second week, and she is keen to do more daring stunts in the future. "I didn't find it half as scary as I did the actual dancing on the floor!" Tabby admitted. "I'm still working on trusting Mark with lifts because I'm used to being in control, like when I'm doing skeleton. But I think we're definitely working on it, and it's been nice. He's been really pushing the boundaries of what I can do because quite often I underestimate some of the things that I'm taking on."
The next Winter Olympics is four years away, and Tabby is already eyeing up her next gold. "Skeleton is my first love," she said. "It's such an incredible sport, and I still definitely have more to achieve there. There's so much more potential in me, and there's another Olympics in 2030 that I might set my sights on. I think it's really nice to know that I'm challenging myself, pushing myself in different ways, but I'm also gonna have my original sport that I adore to go back to."
She added: "When I say the stars aligned for me this year, they really did."
