Olympic gymnast Amy Tinkler will join Dancing On Ice for tonight’s latest live show.
She will replace Denise Van Outen who was forced to quit the show as the result of a shoulder injury.
Amy said of joining the series: “It’s something that I’ve always wanted to do and it’s definitely a challenge that I really enjoy. I’ve always watched the show every year and when the opportunity came up it was just something I jumped at.
“It’s been an absolutely crazy year for everybody so to have something like this in the middle of this and to have something to take my mind off everything else that’s going on, I’m just so lucky and so grateful for that. ”
Amy will be skating with professional partner Joe Johnson. The pair have been in training as a reserve couple alongside the original line up since October.
Amy enthused: “Joe and I have the best time together, we haven’t stopped laughing once. Just the other day we were in the studio and we got told off for laughing too loud.
“That’s just us and I’ve definitely made a friend for life with Joe. Skating itself hasn’t come natural to me so it’s taken a while to work on that. Joe’s an amazing coach.”
Describing getting the call to join the show as a “mixture of emotions” Amy continued: “I came into this as a reserve, I wasn’t expecting to end up on the show and it’s never nice to see anyone get injured.
“I was obviously really gutted for Denise but I was also super excited. I think Joe and I screamed for about five minutes. We got the call on Tuesday and then we were in the studios on Wednesday. It was all go go go!”
And Amy revealed that Denise and professional Matt Evers has been giving her some tips on the ice.
Amy shared: “She has been so kind to me and Joe and her and Matt came and watched our rehearsals yesterday and they were giving us a few tips. She’s a natural born performer so it was really nice to have her input on the performance side of it.
“Matt’s obviously a great skater so he had some great advice as well. I’m going to do it for Denise and I really hope to do both her and Matt proud.”
The Olympic bronze medallist went on: “Everyone’s been so, so nice on the cast.
“Even though we haven’t been able to mix properly, everyone’s just been so kind to me and when they all found out that I was going in they all welcomed me in.
“We’ve all become a group of friends even though we can’t spend much time together. I feel like we are all a big family. Becky [Vardy] was the first person that reached out to me when she heard the news and she’s been so kind. All the guys are really sweet really.
Dancing On Ice, ITV, Sunday at 6PM.
Picture: ITV
