ULRIKA JONSSON

Skating Partner: Pavel Aubrecht

Television presenter Ulrika confesses that she is finding the training for the show fairly relentless.

“It’s not like saying you’ve got a couple of weeks to enjoy yourself. It’s pretty endless and relentless and it’s hard to see progress. It’s not like doing something one day and then coming back again in three weeks”.

Although she does admit to ‘skating a lot’ as a kid, it has been thirty years since she has been on the ice, and balance is still proving to be a problem.

“As a kid I did skate a lot but fell over a lot as couldn’t keep my balance. Nothing’s changed!

“It’s hilarious! As long as my partner, Pavel, is holding me I feel like I could skate across the world but the second he puts me at arms length I’m like Bambi. It’s incredibly hard, I struggle with dancing let alone putting me on a couple of razor blades! To choreograph to move hands and feet together and to put it on ice is just a nightmare.”

“Pavel’s a really hard task master. I’ve introduced humour to our sessions though, mainly by the way I skate. He’s very ambitious for us so he’s always driving it. I need that. I can be very disciplined too, in fact I was training at 8 am the other Sunday, which was a really tough as I had a child-free weekend and could have had a lie-in!”

Her children have expressed their concerns at their mum taking up the sport.

“My 12 year son’s initial thought was ‘What if you get injured?’ My daughters don’t really understand, I tell them I’m going to work, and they say. ‘You’re going skating!’

But now with the first live show looming, Ulrika is just hoping that her nerves don’t let her down!

“I have no way of controlling my legs when I’m nervous, and if my legs shake that’s not going to be too good when I’m on the ice, although I am looking forward to a glass of champagne in my dressing room, when we come off air, thinking wow I didn’t break my neck.”

And as for the other competitors, Ulrika reveals that taking part in Dancing On Ice is a personal challenge for her.

“In all honesty I haven’t thought about the other competitors. My only competition is with me. I would be envious if somebody is much better as I would want to be as good as them but I don’t feel that I’m competing against anyone but myself!”

And as the 11 skaters prepare to battle it out for the coveted title, how does Ulrika rate her chances of winning?

“I definitely don’t think I will win but I’d like to take it as far as possible. What I’d love to say to everyone is - get out there! It really is a good laugh. If a 39 year old mother of three can do it anyone can!”