SHE has been showered with praise after proudly putting her sensational Gladiators body through its paces on Strictly.

But as a child, Montell Douglas often felt embarrassed by the way she looked.

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Standing at 5ft 9in by the time she was 12 years old, there was not much she could do to make herself invisible.

But her athletic stature is one of the secret weapons that, along with dance partner Johannes Radebe, has seen her dazzle on the BBC One dance contest.

Montell, 38, said: “Strictly gives me the chance to wear these beautiful gowns and dresses and find the elegance, while believing and embracing that strong is still sexy.

“That is what I have to remind myself so often. And being with Johannes, honestly, he is a reminder every day that strong is sexy.”

Along with show favourite Jojo, who is 6ft tall, Montell is happily towering over almost every other contestant — and not just in height.

The duo have also delivered consistently sensational performances which have seen them placed among the highest scoring couples.

But it was a very different story when the future Gladiator — better known on the show as Fire — was growing up in Bromley, South East London.

Montell said: “When you’re a little girl and you want to fit in and you do nothing but stand out, you slump your shoulders.

“I’ve always had bad posture because you’re just big and you can’t hide.

“I didn’t really like the limelight.

“I didn’t like people to see me all the time.

“And I really struggled with my body shape, how I was moving my limbs, they were really long and gangly.

“The confidence just wasn’t there.”

‘More than just dancing’

Things started to changed when a PE teacher at her school in Bromley spotted her talent for athletics, especially sprinting.

Montell, a former Olympic runner, says discovering sport shaped the way she started to think about her body.

She added: “I think going through sport has empowered me because my physicality, my body, has never been because of how I want it to look.

“It’s always been for performance.

“I’ve never looked and gone, ‘I want this crazy back that I’ve got right now, all this muscle.

“I want my shoulders to be this way’.

“I’ve never felt like that.

“I’ve done it because that’s what made me run fast and that was the priority.”

Montell’s body has certainly propelled her to the pinnacle of sport.

She represented Team GB at the summer Olympics in 2008, where she competed in the 100 metres and as part of the 4×100 metres relay team, which reached the final.

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Not content with one shot at the Games, in 2016 she shifted her attention to the bobsleigh and, in 2022, took part in the winter Olympics.

She is the first female to compete at both the summer and winter Olympics for Team GB.

So it is no wonder that, when the BBC decided to reboot Gladiators last year, Montell was snapped up by producers and became her alter ego, Fire.

Now she is setting the ballroom ablaze, particularly as she and Johannes are one of the few all-black partnerships on the show.

That is something they celebrated during their couple’s choice dance last month, which was a carnival- inspired routine to Skeleton Move by Master KG.

And it earned the duo three perfect tens from the judges and also praise from viewers.

‘When you’re a little girl and you want to fit in and you do nothing but stand out, you slump your shoulders. I’ve always had bad posture because you’re big and can’t hide’

Montell Douglas

Representation is important to the pair as they want to inspire young viewers to follow their dreams.

Breaking down in tears as she talked about what their partnership stands for, Montell said: “It’s so powerful, honestly.

“It’s a lot because it means a lot for both of us.

“Obviously, it was a real joy to have Jojo as my partner because it’s more than just dancing.

“It’s more than just steps.

“It is more than just the music and the costumes.

“It’s real. And that means a lot.”

Johannes added: “It’s the ultimate truth.

“My niece back home in South Africa, she is blown away. She really is.

“I’m her uncle.

“I’ve been doing this, and she’s watched me, for years.

“But she’s never seen this picture.

“She said, ‘This year, Strictly is my favourite thing because of Montell’.

“And I just thought to myself, ‘That’s why we do what we do’.

“And so I’m beside myself, honestly.”

It’s not just Johannes’ niece who has been moved by their partnership.

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Montell said they have been stopped in the street by people thanking them for what they are showing on a primetime BBC show.

She added: “Going to lunch yesterday, this lady came up to us in the street and stopped us to say, ‘Seeing you guys together is just everything to us and for our communities, it’s a big thing’, and it is.

“And we don’t talk about it enough, but we understand and we do not take it for granted.

“We want people to know that we value and appreciate the honour it is and the privilege to represent that and what it means.

“But also know deep down in our hearts that we want to represent that in the best way we possibly can.

“We owe it to everyone to be able to feel the same way that we feel. And that’s what we try to do.”

‘My body is just tight. The weight is stripping away. Everything is popping. Honestly, I haven’t looked this lean in eight years, before I did the bobsleigh.
I’m loving it’

Montell Douglas

It is clear that, for Montell, Strictly is more than just a bit of fun or a boost for her celebrity status.

So ending up in the dance-off last weekend against fellow Olympian, hockey player Sam Quek and her partner Nikita Kuzmin, was a hammer blow.

Montell had swept the dancefloor to Whitney Houston’s I Will Always Love You for the show’s first icons themed week and, thankfully, the judges unanimously saved her.

She said: “We were absolutely gutted to be in the dance-off.

“It’s never easy for anyone.

“You work so hard to put in a good performance and, in the moment, it was really sad thinking that could be the last time that we get to dance together.

“The fight and love we have for this journey kept us in another week and I am so proud of how far we’ve come in the ballroom.

“We get to go again.”

Tonight’s show will see Montell and Johannes take on the paso doble to Lola’s Theme by The Shapeshifters.

‘In insane shape’

It is a routine she has been loving this week, explaining: “It’s no secret I love Latin.

“I just feel like it’s in my bones.”

And she has been putting her all into training, which, she says, has led to her physique changing over the past few months.

Montell says “everything is popping” because she has lost so much weight.

She added: “I’m telling you, coming from a very specific power background, like lifting weights, being strong, it’s very different to the intensity of dance training.

“The athlete in me loves it because I love being able to use my body in a new way, but lean into my old skills if I can.

“But, physically, I look completely different.

“Even my Gladiator family have been like, ‘You look in insane shape’. Because my body is just tight.

“The weight is stripping away.

“Everything is popping, I look very different.

“Honestly, I haven’t looked this lean in eight years, before I did the bobsleigh.

“It’s all gone. I’m loving it!”

For single Montell, there might be an added bonus to looking sexy on the dancefloor — and that is all the male attention.

She reveals that men have been sliding into her DMs trying to get noticed by her.

But bad news, lads.

She only has time for one man in her life.

Montell said with a laugh: “They’re all in the request file.

“I don’t have time.

“I don’t even have time to put a story up of us training because we’re too busy training.

“Look, I’ve got one man in my life right now and that’s Jojo.

“He’s all the man I need, so I’m going to stick with him for now.”

• Strictly Come Dancing is on BBC One tonight at 6.35pm.