James Cracknell, 47, left little to the imagination as he shared a backstage video of his new glowing tan. The Strictly Come Dancing contestant took to Instagram and uploaded a video where displayed the results of his fake tan by wearing nothing but black briefs. The rowing champion pulled his underwear to one side and showed how dark his tan was as a line could be seen across his upper thigh. Showing off his toned physique, the gold medallist held onto a spray tan machine.
In view of his 33,500 followers, James captioned the clip: “Getting real. Tan done, dance tomorrow.”
The athlete is partnered with professional dancer Luba Mushtuk, 29, in the dance competition.
The former Olympian is accustomed to a strict training schedule but has recently revealed that dance rehearsals with Luba have been “relentless”.
Speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk, James opened up about his progression for Strictly, which airs tomorrow night.
He said: “She’s pretty relentless in making sure it’s done properly.
“I can’t imagine if I put someone in a rowing boat who had never rowed before and they do it for as many hours as we’re doing it and the person wasn’t grafting it, I would be saying, ‘It’s not hard! Just do it properly!’
“We’ve been training 10 hours a day and she hasn’t yet said that because she must be thinking, ‘How uncoordinated can you be? Are you deliberately doing it wrong?’”
He continued: “But she’s amazing and when someone’s chosen the music, planned the dance routine to the music and is making sure you can do it, it’s amazing what they can do.
“It reflects on them as well as a teacher, dancer, and a choreographer, so she’s under huge pressure and she’s got this muppet that can’t do anything – the frustration must be enormous!”
The British athlete is a double Olympic gold medallist, and has also won the top prize in six races at the World Rowing Championships.
But the rower has admitted he feels taking to the dance floor is more of a mental challenge than a physical one.
Speaking to MailOnline, he divulged: “Physically you’re used to doing that side but there’s only so much information my brain can absorb.
“That’s as much limited by that as the physical side.”
“You’ve got to learn not only a routine, you’ve also got to be able to dance in the first place. It’s like playing a football match when they’ve never walked before,” he explained.
“You’ve got to get the basics like this is how you walk, this is how you kick a ball, and this is a game of football. So you’re trying to fast-track a very impossible difficult skill in a crazy short time.”
James is competing against the likes of David James, Anneke Rice, Chris Ramsey, Michelle Visage and Coronation Street’s Catherine Tyldesley on this year’s series.
Strictly Come Dancing airs Saturday on BBC One at 7pm.