Inside Gladiators assault course - how to take on super fit stars of new show
Contenders, ready! Gladiators, ready!... but I am most certainly not ready. As someone who gets a stitch running for the bus, the prospect of trying to pass three Amazonian athletes to throw a red ball into a pod fills me with dread.
However somehow, like waking up in the middle of a fever dream, this is the task ahead with some of the female stars of Gladiators reboot about to play Powerball.
Eye to eye with glamourous Electro - AKA Jade Packer, 25-year-old body builder who can squat more than my body weight - I dart around the box like an electrocuted rabbit, before launching myself forward with force only to lose my balance and end up bum to floor. Note to anyone planning to take on the Gladiators - don’t try it while only wearing socks on your feet...
Lydia battles against The GladiatorsMaybe a different challenge would see an improvement? But no, things don’t get much better playing a version of Duel, the iconic game where a Contender and Gladiator try to knock each other off a raised platform with large pugil sticks.
This muted version takes place at ground level and against Diamond, or Livi Sheldon a fitness model and coach from Worcester who was bullied for her height at school. “When I was growing up I used to get picked on for being taller than everyone else,” says the 29-year-old. “Now I get to show everyone that being unique is your superpower.”
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At six feet tall SHE is actually one inch shorter than me, but I have no advantage. She goes easy, and tells me to hit her hard, but I cannot bring myself to do it and lamely blurt out an apology with every tepid touch. This does nothing to salvage my street cred, and my padded helmet with chin straps unfortunately doesn’t hide by cheeks which have flushed a deep shade of red.
Lydia attempts to pass a Gladiator in a challengeClearly wimps shouldn’t play these games, but the stellar new cast of the Gladiator reboot are certainly worthy of their roles. The upcoming BBC show, hosted by father son due Bradley and Barney Walsh, sees new athletes at the top of their game compete as Apollo, Athena, Bionic, Comet, Diamond, Dynamite, Electro, Fire, Fury, Giant, Legend, Nitro, Phantom, Sabre, Steel and Viper.
Fans can watch these formidable stars take on Contenders from this Saturday, as they try to complete fitness feats and fantastic games.
The new Gladiators were children when the iconic show was on air from 1992 to 2000 and because they were fans themselves - let’s face it who wasn’t? - being on the programme is a full circle moment.
Legend, real name Matt Morsia, 37, had a life-sized poster of 90s Gladiator Wolf on his wall when he was a child growing up in Folkestone, Kent. As some of the stars sit down for a chat in a side room, “For me, literally, this is the pinnacle. This is as good as it gets. These are life goals,” says the bodybuilder, dad-of-two and social media influencer. “As a child if you’d have said ‘You’re going to be a Gladiator…’ outrageous!”
(l-r) Dynamite, Lydia, Electro and SabreWhereas GB sprinter Nitro, real name Harry Aikines-Aryeetey, 35, explains that the 90s stars such as Shadow, Wolf and Ace were childhood heroes of his, and his father met some of these stars during his work as cab driver. “He actually picked up a few of the Gladiators on occasions and came home with a few signed autographs. That was crazy for me, because I’m watching them on TV and then my dad had one in the back of his cab.
“But something I rate my parents for is that anything that would inspire me, they’d say, ‘Don’t worry, you’ll do that one day.’ Even if it was track related, even gladiatorial related, they’d say ‘One day you’ll do that.’ And funnily enough, if you manifest it, it seems to have happened.”
But getting this gig only ‘happens’ with an inordinate amount of hard graft, and as I sit around backstage in the Utilita Arena in Sheffield with a group of the Gladiators it is hard to know where to look as the Lycra clad muscles chatter away. I am overcome with a strong urge to renew my gym membership.
Some of the stars have come from less traditional sporting backgrounds such as Fire - 37-year-old Montell Douglas from Lewisham, South East London - who went from a sprinter to an Olympic bobsleigh athlete, but she believes this is her advantage. “You’re basically throwing yourself at an ice mountain at 90 miles an hour. You have to be extremely fit, fearless, courageous.
Lydia competes against Diamond in Duel“You can go down a bobsleigh and then never want to do it ever again. So that definitely helps being a Gladiator because you have to go in there, you’re up there toe to toe with the best. So it’s like being in the [ice] arena every day. Especially in those conditions, it’s like minus 26 and I’m having to push my body through a lot of stress.” She also explains that the group have been training rigorously while on the show. “I retired from my bobsleigh last year and I just upped my training from three days to six days for the week.
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“Knowing that you’re going to be out there and you want to be the best you can and that’s what’s gonna take. Preparation is always key but really but we’ve all been ready for this, that this is a lifetime of experience and work.”
Legend agrees, explaining “This is all consuming. We eat a lot of food, there is a lot of food going on in the green room backstage.”
The show includes the first ever disabled star, with deaf rugby player Fury, real name Jodie Ounsley, 22, who is from Yorkshire. She explains how she competes in the show. “There is no denying that it is a struggle, but the team has been amazing by doing little signals. Before start, stop and go, the refs put their arms down. So if I don’t hear it, I see the arms go down.
“There are cue cards to hold up for me and little instructions as obviously with the crowd and the music, I’m not going to hear all the stuff. They are speaking to me before games just to go over what needs to be done. Everyones just being so great with me, so honest, and open with me and asking how they can support me.
“That is the biggest thing, I think people are often shy and don’t want to bring it up. People see me as a role model but I’m just doing what I’m enjoying. I’m just doing what I love doing. And if I’m able to inspire some other children I’d be chuffed.”
“There’s far more focus on having some form of inclusion of everyone making sure that everyone has some form of relatability,” says Nitro, who is originally from South London. Is it the same as the 90s show though? “The ethos and the morals actually are still the same because it’s a family show. And we’re here to inspire and we’re here to obviously promote some form of positivity that everyone can take on board, whether it be just sitting down as a family again. The contenders are actually against each other. And we are pushing them, we’re behind everyone if anything.”
But after today’s performance I doubt any Gladiator would like to be behind me on a travelator - the notorious uphill conveyer belt - as chances are I would tumble down as fast as Nitro can sprint!
- Gladiators is on BBC1 tomorrow (Saturday) at 5.50pm
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