Olympic gymnast Amy Tinkler has been announced as Denise Van Outen’s replacement on Dancing On Ice, after the presenter pulled out over an injury.
The 21-year-old will take to the rink with professional skating partner Joe Johnson this weekend for the first time.
The sportswoman has been training in secret as a reserve for the past three months.
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Tinkler was born in Durham in October 1999 and grew up in Bishop Auckland where she trained at a club in Spennymoor.
As the youngest member of the 366-strong Great Britain team at the Rio Olympics in 2016, she won a bronze medal on the floor exercise aged 16.
She was only the second British woman, after Beth Tweddle, to win an individual gymnastics medal at the Olympics, and her win was considered a major upset at the time.
But her post-Olympics career was overshadowed by injury problems and a difficult departure from her childhood club.
She underwent three ankle surgeries, including one to remove pieces of floating bone.
In 2020 she announced her retirement from the sport aged 20, with it widely assumed that her injuries had prompted the decision.
However, she subsequently explained she felt she had no option but to quit over what she claimed was a culture of abuse and bullying in the sport.
Tinkler cited her “experiences as a club and elite gymnast” and the subsequent failure of governing body British Gymnastics to act on a complaint she made about a bullying allegation.
Since leaving the sport Tinkler has remained outspoken about weight shaming and bullying issues.
Widespread reports of both issues subsequently led to British Gymnastics launching an independent review.
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