James Jordan, 44, was corrected last night after he took to Twitter to give fans his critique of Ellie Simmonds’ Strictly Come Dancing routine. Overall, the former Strictly professional seemed very pleased with the way Ellie and her pro partner, Nikita Kuzmin, performed last night during the first live show of the 2022 series.
Giving Ellie some constructive criticism, James urged her to try and “straighten her legs as much as possible”.
He typed in view of his 319,200 followers: “Ellie! I bloody loved it! Well done Nikita – a full on routine – great timing and fun. She needs to try and consciously straighten her legs as much as possible.
“Loved the tricks BUT she needs to believe in herself now. Apart from that it was great and she’s an inspiration #5”
However, it was soon pointed out to the TV star that Ellie did not straighten her legs due to her dwarfism.
Twitter user Dawnie2305 responded: “Unfortunately she won’t be able to straighten her legs anymore than she already has, it is part of dwarfism.”
FlopsyPickle added: “She won’t be able to straighten them any more than she is, due to her dwarfism, as it tends to cause bowing of the legs.
“When I say ‘it’ I mean whichever form of dwarfism she has, there are a couple of hundred conditions that fall under the dwarfism umbrella. The majority cause bowing of the legs.”
Jenros2 chimed in: “People with dwarfism generally have bow legs.”
Ellie first rose to prominence after winning her first Paralympic medal at the age of 13 at the Beijing Paralympic Games in 2008.
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She was awarded an MBE at the young age of 14 and then became a five-time Paralympic gold medallist.
Now, Ellie, who was born with achondroplasia, has taken on the challenge of competing for Strictly’s Glitterball Trophy at 27 years old.
She has previously spoken out on becoming the first UK contestant of Strictly Come Dancing who has the condition.
“Disability representation is so important on a show like this [Strictly Come Dancing], and I’m honoured to do it for the dwarfism community,” she said.
“Especially something like dancing, which is something that I’ve never, ever done before.
“So hopefully people who are sitting at home and watching realise that anyone can do it.”
Ellie added to Express.co.uk and other outlets: “Dancing with a person of shorter stature is obviously new for the professionals too.
“And then I’m completely new at dancing, so it’s about seeing how we’ll see how we can adapt it and learning for me and my partner – it’s like where do you put your hands and things like that.”