Who is/was the worse dancer ? Victoria Pendleton or John Sergeant ?

I love Victoria. She was a magnificent Olympic champion and she is very pretty/beautiful; but, she really is a lousy dancer.

She's not worse no, though he seemed to enjoy his performances more.

Victoria is a much better dancer than John Serjeant. She's not a good dancer but at least she tries to dance. Do you truly think John Serjeant approached the competition with the end game of becoming a dancer?

No she isnt . She puts effort into it

and no where near the standard of John Sargeant

very unfair, she is week and floppy but a lot of other women celebs have been ,notably Christine Bleakley I think that would be a fair comparison

eta I meant no where need as bad

Is this going by charm and connection to his/her partner, or technical ability / flexibility etc?

From the youtubes, I'd rather watch John, unapt as he was. Lovely connection with Kristina.

Victoria is improving all the time.

In such a small way that if she stays in for next years show she should be quite good. On second thoughts...

There's nothing about road cycling that teaches you coordination. Mountain biking might make you more conscious of balance, but training for the road is very dull. She's well out of her zone in this and partnered with the one pro who's guaranteed to pitch routines too ambitiously. I'm sure he realised she's a bit of a donkey who's never going to be great at this, weeks ago.

He was worse, but not by that much. Considering she's half his age and a professional athlete, that's pretty grim.

No, 'cos she hasn't got that constant smarmy inane grin on her face.

I don't agree that's a fair comparison tbh. Christine Bleakley was a much better performer than Victoria and even though there were faults in her dancing - they weren't as numerous as Victorias' and at least there was a sense of genuine joy about Christine when she performed. Compare and contrast their sambas for instance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8ztBDpvnn0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jljx1NoHWIY

OP I preferred Jon Sergeant as a contestant to Victoria - he was actually ok to start with - produced some memorable routines and at least he was a laugh and as pointed out he had great chemistry with Kristina!

I don't think it's very fair to compare them both. John was a much worse contestant than Victoria and there have been worse dancers than Victoria this series and through Strictly history, so I think it would be fairer to compare them to John. Not saying Victoria is great, but has improved quite a bit.

Forgot about Christina (pity Matt not dancing now)
Thought Victoria was one of the worst dancers
But just watched the two videos.........not much between them at all
Victoria must be better than I thought
Or I'd wiped past disasters from my memory

John Sargeant did the right thing, even Victoria could beat him in a danceoff

Nope.

NO ONE can take Johns crown on that score.

No, John had a style unique to himself.

I would say Victoria is on a par with Fiona Phillips or Kate Garraway.

Do you truly think that Victoria has approached the competition with the end game of becoming a dancer? Or is it a thing she's doing because she's retired from cycling, and wants to up her public profile in order to attract new opportunities?

I'd doubt many of the contestants truly aim to become dancers, other than the actors/singers for whom it can open up new areas of work. How many former contestants are still dancing now? Not many.

I thought she was a track cyclist and not a road cyclist?

What is there in presenting TV shows, acting in a soap opera, throwing a ball at someone, singing in a boy or girl band etc that "teaches you coordination"?

I would actually think a fair bit of coordination is needed when you are going around the track at high speed only a few inches away from one or more other cyclists.

We have to agree to disagree on that one because I did see quite a difference in the videos ie better dancing and performance level from Christina which is why she got quite decent scores for that samba and Victoria didn't for hers.

I wouldn't even class Victoria as a bad dancer. She is just far too self-aware and lacking in confidence.

Dance ability & potential: Victoria > John
Entertainment factor: John > Victoria
Who I'd rather watch: John > Victoria

Victoria has improved tremendously, from being a non-dancer.

No. She is not. Nowhere near it. John Sergeant was a man who could barely take a step convincingly. Victoria is a woman who has some major balance issues and strangely, considering how bloody strong her body must be, has an extremely weak core.

For weeks now I've seen her as a pity vote case. But, what I always come back to is the first 20/30 seconds of her rumba, before the heel thing totally freaked her out. She was actually looking fantastic at the beginning. It was quite astounding. But then it all went to pot.

She is not incapable of dancing. JS was. Victoria is not a terrible dancer. She is a terrible performer and has nerves of jelly.

Both not good dancers, however,I much preferred John's performances - a million times more likeable and entertaining. Afraid Victoria leaves me cold.

Victoria has the decency to look pained and embarrassed about dancing badly while John Sergeant was completely shameless, making him at least a bit less cringe-y to watch at least.