Mo Farah leads star-studded Superstars Team GB Olympic special line-up
Gabby Logan will host as sixteen medal-winning British Olympians face off against one another on BBC1
Mo Farah and Helen Glover are among the athletes taking part in an Olympic special of popular sporting entertainment show Superstars on BBC1 this Christmas.
Sixteen members of Britain’s 2012 Olympic team will participate in the one-off 90-minute show, which will see them competing against one another to be crowned the best all-round superstar. The Team GB stalwarts will be pitted against one another in a number of different disciplines including running, swimming, archery and javelin.
They’ll also tackle a kayak race and put their cycling skills to the test in an uphill climb, with the show climaxing in a grand finale featuring that favourite Superstars event – the gym test.
As well as Farah and Glover, the medal-winning Olympian Superstars participants are Alistair Brownlee, Jonathan Brownlee, Robbie Grabarz, Michael Jamieson, Anthony Joshua, Andrew Triggs Hodge, Peter Wilson, Nicola Adams, Lizzie Armistead, Laura Bechtolsheimer, Gemma Gibbons, Katherine Grainger, Jade Jones and Christine Ohuruogu.
Bronze medallist Rebecca Adlington will act as mentor to all the athletes in the swimming event and Superstars 2012 will be hosted by Gabby Logan, whose father, professional footballer Terry Yorath, appeared on the original Superstars in the 1970s.
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Former Olympians Denise Lewis and Iwan Thomas will act as pundits on the special, which will be filmed at the University of Bath, with the grand final taking place in the city's Assembly Rooms.
Logan said: “I am thrilled to be hosting this special edition of Superstars; we have an incredible line-up of Olympic heroes. What an opportunity for them to compete against each other across a range of diverse physical challenges. My dad was on Superstars back in the late 70s and as a kid it was one of my favourite shows.”
Mark Linsey, the BBC’s Controller of Entertainment Commissioning, added: “As a great fan of the original series I am thrilled to commission this one-off for Christmas. It will be a real treat especially as it will star an unbelievable line-up of medal winning athletes from London 2012.”
Superstars was first broadcast in Britain during the 1970s and 80s. Based on an American TV format, the show was hosted by David Vine and featured elite athletes competing across a range of sporting disciplines. It was revived on the BBC between 2003 and 2005, and again on Channel 5 with a revamped format in 2008.
