Former British artistic gymnast Nile Wilson will be one of the stars set to take part in the final of this year's Dancing on Ice.
A total of eleven celebrities, have performed alongside professional ice skating dancers, all hoping to be crowned the winner of the 15th series. They have been judged by Olympian skaters Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, Diversity dancer Ashley Banjo and former Strictly Come Dancing professional dancer Oti Mabuse.
Nile, an Olympic bronze medal-winning athlete from Leeds, is partnered with dancer Olivia Smart. The 26-year-old, who retired from competitive gymnastics in 2021, is best known for winning an Olympic bronze medal in the men’s horizontal bar at the 2016 Summer Olympics.
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He is also a five-time Commonwealth champion and became the first Brit to win the European horizontal bar championship. But who is the popular athlete with an online following of more than 1.5 million people on YouTube alone?
Below we take a look at his life, career and his mental health struggles which he openly speaks about in his vlog entries.
Personal life
Nile Wilson, the great nephew of cricket legend Duncan Fearnley, grew up in Pudsey with parents Sally and Neil and sister Joanna. Neil began gymnastics aged five at Leeds Gymnastics Club and went on to be crowned British Junior Champion in March 2014.
The Olympic gymnast has won 11 medals throughout his career, including five gold medals at the Commonwealth Games. At the Summer Olympics in 2016, he became the first British gymnast to win the bronze medal at the horizontal bar event, with a score of 15.466.
Nile attended Farsley Farfield Primary School and Pudsey Grangefield School. He runs a YouTube channel with more than 1.5 million subscribers and regularly posts videos in which he does amusing challenges, speaks about his career, mental health or family.
Neck injury
In 2018, Nile ripped out a disc in his neck during training in Germany, leaving him in excruciating pain. Doctors said the extent of the injury was serious and the young athlete underwent major surgery two weeks later.
Retirement from gymnastics
On January 14 in 2021, Nile announced he would retire from gymnastics, citing health problems as the reason. In a post on social media, he thanked everyone for their support over the years and said he was excited for "the next chapter".
Nile wrote: "I’ve been sat in my car trying to type this out for way over an hour. Today I hang up my hand guards and retire from the professional sport of gymnastics... ‘Gymnastics’ you are the best sport in the world!
"You’re my first love, my addiction, you set me free, you gave me purpose and you gave me experiences I could not even have dreamed of! Unfortunately, my body just couldn’t keep up and that’s okay, it is my time to move on and I can’t wait for the next chapter."
He added: "I am now in tears writing this haha. Everyone that has watched, supported or found inspiration from my gymnastics, thank you so much! I was a young boy with a dream.
"With a hell of a lot of work and belief I am living proof that you can achieve anything you want in this life. Over & out it’s been a F****** BLAST .. Ps I landed that Hbar Dismount a few times when it mattered."
Cultural abuse allegations in UK gymnastics
Since retiring, Nile has raised allegations of a culture of abuse within British gymnastics. He told BBC Sport that “without a doubt” he was abused during his training and said athletes are "treated like pieces of meat".
He also alleged that he was forced to “live in fear” of his coaches and the consequences of underperforming and "stayed quiet" for fear of professional consequences.
Mental health struggles
Since his retirement, Nile has spoken candidly about his mental health struggles such as anxiety and depression and his addiction to gambling. He first started gambling in his teenage years and described it as an "escape" from reality.
In a YouTube video, he said: "My life was so crazy and intense and then when things started to blow up on YouTube, business and all of a sudden I had a lot of money. I felt like a pressure cooker and then eventually, I'd just go 'bang' and that would be me nipping off to the casino and uncontrollably playing roulette."
He added: "I think gambling is a silent killer for athletes in particular because there is no negative physiological effects, like there is no hangover. I could effectively be a professional athlete and a gambler because I could still go to the casino from 6pm to 10pm, I could still get my 10 hours kip, I could still eat the diet that I needed to eat, I could still get in the ice bath when I got back, I could still recover."
Nile said his addiction got progressively worse, leading to him gambling when he didn't even want to gamble. He did not tell his loved ones about his struggles and said he got to a really low stage in his life where he felt "so guilty and so ashamed".
In the video, which he posted last year, Nile said he was banned from every casino in the UK and has put "safety measures" in place to avoid relapsing.
He encouraged others in a similar position to seek support, saying: "I was heading to bankruptcy very quick and it will have happened very, very quickly if I didn't put my hands up [and asked for help]."
Dad's health struggles
Nile's dad Neil Wilson had a stroke in 2012 and at the end of 2022, suffered a bleed on his brain due to a growth in his head. This resulted in a second stroke which saw him spend four days in hospital.
Neil will have brain surgery on January 17, which coincides with his son's 27th birthday, to try and shrink the growth. Speaking of the symptoms he has been experiencing, Neil said he was constantly in "nine out of ten pain" with the left side of his body feeling weaker than his right.
However, he said he was incredibly grateful and felt lucky to "still be here" and to not have lost his speech. During an emotional interview with his son, he said: "I don't live every day like it's my last, it's just not a realistic way to live your life.
"However, I do have a different outlook on life and I do want my life to be continuous and to go on for a long, long time and part of the reason is a) I love life and I love what I'm doing. B) is you, Joanna, Sally.
"I want to continue to see your journey and how you grow and develop and how we do collectively because it's almost like it's too good of a journey to miss out on with everything that's happening within this family."
Love life
Nile has previously dated Gabrielle Paige and Cirque Du Soleil artist Emily McCarthy with whom he also collaborated on a number of YouTube videos. He is currently in a relationship but has not officially confirmed who his new girlfriend is.
In a picture on his Instagram page in which he reflects on 2022 and praises his family and girlfriend, Nile tagged Hermione Wilson who commented "Love you" underneath the post.
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