Sir Steve Redgrave has admitted an injury from his days as a champion rower affected his ability to lift his pro partner Vicky Odgen.
Speaking exclusively to the Olympic hero, who was the third star to exit the skating competition, demonstrated the mobility in his left arm as he explained the issue.
“My body is giving up so I wasn’t going to be able to do that many lifts because I’ve got a frozen shoulder. I can’t get that up higher. I could lift Vicky up this way a bit,” he said demonstrating a lift to the right.
“But I’ve got so many limitations within my body. Being a diabetic…my knees are pretty shot…My back held up pretty well, actually, most of the most of the time. But my body, I abused it too much when in my own career,” he admitted.
“When you start at the age of 14/15, back in the 70s, we did a lot of heavy weights, which the team doesn’t really do now. So I sort of injured myself in different ways that growing athletes don’t do now, and so I’ve got all those things I’m taking with me,” he said.
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Sir Steve Redgrave has ongoing issues from injuries he received in his days rowing competitively (Image: PA)
Steve’s admission comes as three stars have been forced to quit the show this series due to injury. Dame Sarah Storey had to drop out before the show even began after injuring herself in rehearsals.
Comedian Josh Jones annouced he was forced to withdraw from after being injured during rehearsals at the end of last month. Meanwhile pro skater on February 2 after sustaining an injury.
Acknowledging the experience was more difficult than he expected, Steve admitted he never thought he was going to be the best skater.
“Ego wise, I thought I’d be okay. I didn’t think I was ever going to be – the age I am, the flexibility that I don’t have – I never thought I was going to be the best skater in the world. I thought I’d be okay at it but I found it the hardest thing that I’ve ever done, sporting wise. And I’ve done a lot of different sports over the years, a lot of the winter sports and my respect for the skating community is gone up.
“Amazingly, I’ve probably done about 100 hours of ice skating in the last four months, and I’m still rubbish. One hundred hours of another sport… I’ve done nowhere near 100 hours of Bob Sleigh but became British champion.
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Sir Steve Redgrave sent all the Dancing on Ice cast members some Step One products (Image: Step One)
Now that his time on the ice has come to an end Steve can focus on his other projects including his work with , an Australian underwear brand, which he invested in after trying it out and being impressed by the product.
“The amazing thing about Step One is that as soon as you try it you just don’t wear them just for doing sport – you wear them all the time because they’re so comfortable. And even though I haven’t been involved in the company that long you try not to forget that impact.
“Obviously I’ve been doing Dancing On Ice for the last four months and in that last week I sent a little package to the pro skaters and the other celebrities, and the feedback immediately from skaters that have been skating all their life was: ‘This is the best underwear – not just for skating, in general – I’ve ever worn.’
“And that’s what we find is that when people try them they fall in love with them. So that’s an easy investment, from my point of view,” he said.
You can get more information about Step One products .