British Olympian Tom Dean Sees Swift Exit From Strictly Come Dancing

After bringing home a gold medal in the pool from Paris, two-time British Olympian Tom Dean will be leaving the dance floor without any hardware to his name following the recent results of Strictly Come Dancing.

Dean and his partner, professional dancer Nadiya Bychkova were voted off of the British reality show on Sunday after failing to impress the judges with their performance during the dance-off portion of the evening.

The pair were the first contestants to be eliminated from the show, as Sunday’s spectacle was the first elimination episode of the series. It marked just their second week on the show.

Dean and Bychkova performed the cha cha to Boogie Wonderland by Earth, Wind and Fire, but received a lower judges’ score than their dance-off competitors Toyah Willcox and Neil Jones, who danced the jive to Nutbush City Limits by Ike and Tina Turner.

In an Instagram post, Dean shared his disappointment at being unable to continue on the show but said he had a blast throughout the journey.

“The journey may have ended a little earlier than I hoped and of course I am so gutted, but I’m so grateful for all the amazing people I met, people I’ll be cheering on throughout and who I know will continue to smash it,” Dean said.

Bychkova also reflected on her experience dancing with Dean on Instagram, calling him a “perfect gentleman” and amazing student.

Before becoming one of the celebrity contestants on Season 21 of Strictly Come Dancing, Dean was a three-time Olympic champion for Great Britain. He won gold in the men’s 200 freestyle and 4×200 freestyle relay in Tokyo, and was part of the British quartet that repeated as Olympic champions in the 4×200 free relay in Paris.

Bychkova is a two-time World and European Champion in ‘10’ dance and joined the show as a professional dancer in 2017.

The remaining couples will take to the dance floor again on Saturday for the movie week special, with the results show taking place on Sunday evening; viewers can tune in to watch the results show at 7:15 BST on BBC One.