Louis Smith will be banned from skiing for three years from next month.
The 27-year-old gymnast is currently in with a shot of walking away with the trophy in this weekend’s final of ‘The Jump’ but he has admitted, even if he does win the series, he won’t be allowed near the slopes until after the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Speaking to The Daily Mirror newspaper, he said: "I can’t go on skiing holidays while I’m in training. I have the show finishing on March 12, I fly back on the 13th and the 14th I’m back in the gym. So straight back into it, no time to waste.
"The next time I can ski will probably be after the 2020 Games. I will miss skiing but it’s not the first time I’ve had to sacrifice stuff."
The handsome sportsman will go up against Amy Willerton, Emma Parker Bowles, Jason Robinson, Kadeena Cox, Spencer Matthews and the now-reinstated Lydia Bright, following the shock exit of Gareth Thomas, in Sunday’s (12.03.17) final.
And, although he’s convinced he’ll probably be crowned king of the slopes, he believes his biggest rival is reality TV star Spencer because he’s got the mentality of an athlete.
He explained: "I don’t want to give him a big head, but I said to him: ‘If you had dedicated yourself at a young age to a sport, I have no doubt [you] would have been an Olympian. The way he takes things on and understands his body and what he needs to do to improve his technique; like me he learns very quickly, and so I said to him: ‘You could have been a very successful sportsman’."
‘The Jump’ will conclude at 8.30pm on Sunday on Channel 4.
Louis Smith banned from skiing
