Sam Quek: The Olympic hockey player turned Question of Sport star taking on Strictly

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Sam Quek was the ultimate celeb revealed to be becoming a member of this yr’s Strictly Come Dancing celeb line-up.

Quek was introduced to take part on the 2024 run of the BBC dancing competitors in August on an episode of The One Show. “I am so relieved it is out there now it has been hard to keep a secret!” she stated. “The rumours were spreading and I had to lie!”

Quek is an Olympic hockey champion, having received a gold medal with crew Great Britain on the 2016 Rio Olympics. The athlete has received 125 worldwide caps for the England and GB girls’s hockey groups, successful her first towards Argentina in 2007 aged simply 19 whereas nonetheless learning sports activities and train science at Leeds Metropolitan University.

The athlete’s hockey profession hasn’t at all times been plain crusing. After failing to be chosen for a number of Olympic groups and breaking two ribs in 2014, she thought of leaving the game.

“In June 2015, I seriously considered hanging up my stick and walking away,” she beforehand instructed The Guardian. “I missed out on Beijing and London and watched all the games from the stands. I remember post-2012 saying I never wanted to experience that feeling again. Words can’t describe how painful it was to sit there.”

The hockey player retired after successful gold on the 2016 Rio Olympics and, three months later, appeared on the sixteenth collection of I’m A Celebrity…Get Me out of Here! Having battled terrifying trials and rodent-infested challenges, Quek got here fourth within the competitors with Gogglebox star Scarlett Moffatt coming in first place.

Following I’m A Celeb, Quek continued to hunt out different broadcast alternatives, telling The Guardian she needed to “become like Gabby Logan or Clare Balding” on the small display.

Sam Quek after winning the women’s gold medal hockey match against the Netherlands at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games

Sam Quek after successful the ladies’s gold medal hockey match towards the Netherlands on the Rio 2016 Olympic Games (Getty Images)

The athlete turned broadcaster subsequently appeared on the ITV sports activities panel sport present Play to the Whistle, the celeb version of The Chase and Pointless Celebrities earlier than being introduced as a crew captain on Question of Sport in 2021.

The similar yr Quek landed her “dream job” she welcomed her first youngster, a daughter known as Molly, along with her husband Tom.

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A yr later, the hockey player turned pregnant along with her second youngster, Isaac, and was rushed to hospital for an emergency C-section after heavy bleeding. The presenter returned to work simply two months later.

Quek instructed New! journal on the time: “I get a lot of mum guilt. They’re only young for so long.  I look back at photos, especially of Isaac, and I can’t remember the first two months, and then I went back to work eight weeks after giving birth to him.”

Quek on ‘Question of Sport'

Quek on ‘Question of Sport’ (BBC)

Ahead of Strictly Come Dancing training, Quek – who befriended the former Strictly pro Ola Jordan while in the I’m A Celeb jungle – revealed she and her husband had been taking dance classes to remain lively.

Speaking to HELLO! she stated: “I got to know Ola and James [Jordan] over in Australia so they gave us the dancing bug. It’s a good thing for us to get out and get more active rather than socialising on the sofa, so we’re going to start taking classes [around] the corner.”

Though, forward of her Strictly look, Quek stated she’s learnt most of her strikes from her pals. “I am used to dancing on a girls night out but I will give it my all,” she stated.

“I hope to get to Blackpool!”

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