Nile Wilson Dancing on Ice 2023: Who is Leeds Olympic athlete Nile Wilson? Everything you need to know about Dancing on Ice 2023 contestant

Nile Wilson, 26, was the fifth celebrity confirmed for Dancing on Ice 2023 alongside Patsy Palmer, John Fashanu, Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu, Mollie Gallagher, The Vivienne, Joey Essex, Darren Harriott, Michelle Heaton and Siva Kaneswaran.

Here is everything you need to know about the former gymnast.

Who is Nile Wilson?

Nile is a former professional gymnast. He was born and raised in Leeds in January 1996 to Sally and Neil and is the great nephew of former first-class cricketer Darren Fearnley.

He has a sister, Joanna, and attended Farsley Farfield Primary School and Pudsey Grangefield School.

He has his own YouTube channel where he posts vlogs about his workouts, gymnastic routine and his daily life. His channel has garnered more than 1.51 million subscribers.

He also has another channel he runs with his father called Neil and Nile Vlogs which has more than 171,000 subscribers.

When did Nile Wilson’s sporting career take off?

Nile’s first big win was during the British Junior Championships in March 2014 where he received the Young Sportsman male award at the Leeds Sports Awards.

He also competed at the 2014 European Championships in Sofia in May of that year, where he won five gold medals and became the first British gymnast to ever win five gold medals at the European Junior Gymnastics Championships.

He then went on to be selected to compete for the England Commonwealth Games team, progressing to senior level.

At the 2014 Commonwealth Games, Nile reached a score of 86.607 for the England team to win the Team Gold and qualify second for the individual all-around final behind teammate Max Whitlock.

Nile then won a bronze medal in the all-around final with a score of 87.965 and he won silver in the Parallel bars final with a score of 15.433 behind Scottish gymnast Daniel Purvis. Nile took his first individual Commonwealth gold in the Horizontal Bar final with a score of 14.966.

Nile competed at the 2015 Gymnastics World Championships in Glasgow and came 10th all-round in qualification with 88.365. He competed on three apparatus in the team final: Still Rings (14.933), Parallel Bars (15.033) and Horizontal Bar (14.833), contributing to the team silver medal.

The next major athlete event was on July 12, 2016, when Nile joined the 2016 Olympic team along with Louis Smith, Max Whitlock, Kristian Thomas and Brinn Bevan. At the event, he became the first British gymnast to win the bronze medal at the horizontal bar event, with a score of 15.466.

Unfortunately, Nile endured an injury to his left ankle ligament while training in January 2017, which resulted in surgery. He managed to compete in the 2017 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships after his recovery where he finished sixth in the all-round final.

A year later he was selected to represent England and was able to compete at the Commonwealth Games in the Gold Coast, Australia. On April 5, he won a gold medal in the men’s artistic team all-round and qualified in first place for the individual all-round which he went on to win for his second gold medal. He also added a third gold on the horizontal bar, and won silver on the rings and on the parallel bars.

Due to a severe injury to his neck that led to surgery, Nile missed a number of competitions in 2019 including the Birmingham World Cup and European Championships.

When and why did Nile Wilson retire from gymnastics?

On January 14, 2021, he announced on his YouTube channel that he had retired from gymnastics.

His attributed his retirement decision due to health problems caused by gymnastics and following his retirement from professional gymnastics, Nile raised allegations of a culture of abuse within British gymnastics.

When speaking to BBC Sport, Nile said that he was ‘without a doubt’ abused during his training and was subject to ‘emotional manipulation’.

Nile also admitted to waiting until after his retirement before revealing the alleged abuse as he feared he may face professional consequences, including deselection from the British Olympic team if he spoke out about it.