Olympic gold medallist Denise Lewis was forgotten Strictly runner-up
Olympic champion Denise Lewis won gold in the heptathlon, but Strictly Come Dancing fans may have forgotten that she was runner-up to Jill Halfpenny twice in the ballroom.
Lewis, who won her gold medal for championing in track and field at the 2000 Sydney Games and four years later had a less well remembered starring role on the Strictly dancefloor.
The Team GB athlete is back at the 2024 Olympics, this time as a commentator at the Paris Games. We look back at her Strictly appearances and incredible sporting record.
Denise Lewis was a Strictly runner-up
So many celebrities have taken part in Strictly Come Dancing, which is about to head into its 21st series, that it can be difficult to keep track of who has and hasn't had a crack at the BBC contest.
But what Strictly fans might not recall is that Lewis was a runner-up in the second season of Strictly, and has been runner-up to Jill Halfpenny twice.
Strictly series one and two both took place in the same year, 2004, but Lewis' October series was the first one in the show's regular autumn schedule slot.
And while actress Halfpenny has gone down in the Strictly history books as one of the show's most popular winners, it's often easy to forget who came second.
In season two, that was Lewis, partnered by Ian Waite who led her in a Quickstep, Samba and Showdance for the final.
But they were just pipped at the post by Halfpenny and partner Darren Bennett, who beat them again a few weeks later in a champion of champions show that included contestants from the first two series.
Lewis returned to Strictly again in 2016 as a contestant in the Christmas special alongside Anton Du Beke.
Denise Lewis' glittering athletic career
Alongside Katarina Johnson-Thompson and Jessica Ennis-Hill, Lewis is considered one of Britain's greatest female multi-eventers and with good reason.
The athlete's biggest win was a gold medal in the heptathlon at the 2000 Sydney Games, following her bronze medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
She also won gold medals at the 1998 European Championships and the 1994 and 1998 Commonwealth Games.
Denise Lewis on TV
Like many a former athlete, Lewis has found a natural second career as a pundit for BBC Sports.
She is a regular commentator and presenter for athletics coverage, with the 2012 London Games and the 2016 Rio Games already under her belt ahead of Paris.
Outside of her BBC Sports work and Strictly appearances, Lewis has also taken part in plenty of entertainment shows - most recently on The Masked Dancer 2022, where she performed as Sea Slug.
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This article originally appeared on Yahoo TV UK at https://uk.news.yahoo.com/denise-lewis-olympics-strictly-jill-halfpenny-210034490.html
