Two-time Olympic gold medal-winning rower James Cracknell’s career has been defined by the unlikely and seemingly impossible.
Now he has been announced as the latest celebrity contestant to sign up for the new series of Strictly Come Dancing.
The 47-year-old won rowing gold medals at the 2000 and 2004 Olympics and earlier this year became the oldest Boat Race winner.
Cracknell, who was born in Sutton, south London, helped Cambridge University beat Oxford University and win the 165th Boat Race, at the age of 46, while studying for a philosophy degree.
This followed a battle back to full health after suffering a traumatic brain injury when he fractured his skull in a cycling accident in Arizona in 2010.
He described his selection for the 2019 event, in which he was almost 25 years older than some of his team-mates, as “arguably my proudest achievement in rowing”.
Like BBC Radio 1 DJ Dev Griffin, another signee to this year’s Strictly, Cracknell has appeared on Channel 4’s SAS: Who Dares Wins.
He was appointed OBE for his services to sport in the 2005 New Year honours list.
Cracknell married television presenter Beverley Turner in 2002 at Clearwell Castle in Clearwell, Gloucestershire.
The pair, who have three children, were granted a divorce in July.