For me the insight into Kelly Holmes was the fact that on ITV2 they each have to say"If I don't come back to skate next week I will miss......" and all the other celebrities made it personal to their skating partner to say that they will miss them or it would be like losing a member of the family.

Kelly, last week and this week, said words to the effect I will miss not being able to improve my performance and so be better.

Again, nothing personal about her being with Todd.

lyndielou they are the reasons i first started to not like her

I have never liked or supported Kelly during DOI. But in her final dance she knew she was out and I believe that's why it was so lacklustre, and also why they didn't do that final jump. I thought it was strange she was accusing the judges of favouritism towards Bonnie when I've felt they've shown favouritism to herself, after all she was still dancing when the likes of fabulous John and fantastic Sean were not - because of her Sean has gone. We can all have our favourites (can you guess mine?) - but her attitude was bad manners, my Mother taught me about good manners as a child - it was sadly lacking from Kelly. Poor Todd - hardly a mention, the man must have the patience of a saint - bless 'im.

Methinks you should start a Todd Appreciation Thread Cazzbar. Seriously !! Todd had the patience of a saint and deserves some tribute and praise...... If not from Dame Hissy then certainly from us. Shall I leave it to you to do the honours???

I agree with that. She's spent many years being intensely trained to focus on what she has to do in disciplines where she she has to perform totally alone. To achieve what she's achieved she's had to be totally focused and concentrate solely on herself.

As an athlete I'm sure she will have been kept well away from the press during training and before races, only commenting once the job had been done. I feel that when she's in a pressured situation her brain automatically goes into 'athlete' mode, as it had to do for a great number of years. It must be a hard habit to break.

She's definately not media savvy, or confident being interviewed and we also need to consider that one day she was a British runner and the next day she was a double Olympic gold medallist. What seems like about five minutes later she was made a dame. Her world must have been turning somersaults.

When she was given a civic reception she had thought that no-one would turn up and was genuinely shocked by the people who turned out to celebrate her success. She was also thrown head first into a media frenzy for which she didn't seem to have been trained or prepared.

I've only seen the show this morning and I thought that she'd improved as she did last week.

In the show after the results she seemed to be putting the blame squarely on her own inability to improve at the rate she needed to. I don't think she intended to be ungracious, more that she was really disappointed in herself.

As for being ungracious when she heard the judges' comments. I think I'd have found it quite hard not to bite back at Jason if he'd told me that I looked like a man in drag. His comments really go way over the top in a most personal way.

Hi - started a thread - I feel the poor guy deserves one!!

Thing is Sheila, I've watched and listened to all of her interviews on the series (extra and defrosted as well) (Sad or what)? and not once have I seen any manners from her!!

It's down to good manners ultimately and Kelly doesn't appear to have any at all!!

Good girl, I'll just pop in and post on it...

I hold my hands up there because I've hardly seen any

She seemed a reasonable person with an good level of humility before she won her Olympic Medals. The Dame thing was a complete overreaction from a government looking to curry favour with the populist view and completely OTT. As sheila_p comments she was not expecting the reaction she received and seems unable to handle it maturely and keep it in perspective.

The adulation has gone to her head and she seems to have acquired some very unattractive qualities. For Kelly's sake, I hope someone has the guts to take her to one side and slap her..... hard.

She only got them because others were injured even she was shocked.

LOL

I may have this wrong, but I thought Jason was commenting on her performance and said something along the lines of kelly could run the risk of looking like a man in drag, not that she did ? But not having taped any of it, I can't be sure now what he said. I'll be honest here and not wanting to appear nasty but I have thought at times, that kelly looked like a man in drag. I think it is just her build from all her training in her running though. As the weeks have gone on, she has gained a more feminine look now, possibly with all the ice skating training ?

I don't mind Jason though, he speaks more truth than the other's

I've not been posting on this series so far, and in fact haven't watched this programme as avidly as I watch SCD. I've been getting a bit more involved as the series has progressed. However, I really had to come on to say something about Kelly last night. I don't think I've much to add to what's been said but I was very struck by how ungracious she was when she lost out to Bonnie.

To actually say out loud that Bonnie was the judges' favourite throughout and that it was obvious she, Kelly, would lose out for that reason was unpardonable. I am sorry that Kelly has been hurt by the judges' remarks on her own performances and agree that some have been too personal and hurtful. But it's clear to me that she had gone as far as she could and this is the week when she had to go. Judges' favourite or not, Bonnie deserves to stay in the show on merit.

Obviously Kelly was upset and perhaps not thinking about how her words would come across. But as an Olympic athlete who's had her share of disappointments in the past she must have had to make similar responses in interviews, praising the athletes who beat her and thanking her supporters etc. Last night she sounded sour and bitter and it was very disappointing to hear.


And I should just say that, in contrast to my slight dislike of Zoe, the judges' favourite on SDC, Bonnie is actually my favourite on this show.

I have to say that, for me Kelly's skating within her performance last night, was better than Bonnie's was within hers.

I also feel that she probably had a point when she said that she didn't expect to get through the skate off against Bonnie.

Unfortunately however, she didn't deliver the point particularly diplomatically, which marred the manner of her exit.

Totally Agree! She didnt stand a chance against bonnie even if bonnie had fallen over a hundred times!

I do genuinely believe the show is engineered for bonnie to win i just hope im wrong!

Kelly rocks - Bonnie sucks. Kelly gets a chair to perform with, Bonnie gets a feather boa - fair NOT.

Bonnie can only be lifted and carried around the ice. Her skating - when she does any - is basic in the extreme and the high marks for their performance are purely down to the hard work and talent of her partner each week - she contributes nothing and is, in fact, just a prop.

Olympic champions don't like losing, agreed very un British, but that could be why most of our athletes etc are c**p.

OK it's not nice but that is the way it goes, mind you having that gurning idiot shoving a mike in your face twenty seconds after YOU ARE A LOSER (the words Kelly Holmes and her ilk hate most in the world) is not top of the lists she would want to experience. I Reckon we were lucky she only blamed the chair and she didn't resort to a tirade of abuse, but again that wouldn't be very British would it.

I'm glad you lot think so to

What a self imposed women she is with one massive ego

She has done her self no favours.

Dame Kelly Holmes is an absolute joke.
She is rude,arrogant and a nasty piece of work.The judges were almost afraid to vote her off.Sean was a far better skater.Her comments re Jason,that he always gave her low marks were so untrue.Jason was always fair,I believe he gave her 5 the week before.
Jayne & Chris were awarded only an OBE I believe,they are equally deserve Dame&Knighthoods.
It must have been awful for them to workwith someone who was so ungracious,who thought that she was so much better than anyone else.She appears to lack respect for everyone around her.Let's face it she spent most of her athletics career injured.
Kelly Holmes is no Dame in my eyes,she is my least favourite person,I hope her T.V work disappears as she certainly is a huge turn off.
I felt extremly sorry for Todd as he certainly deserved better.I look forward to watching him in the next series.
Holmes looked & acted as though she was a victim and how dare any one could criticise her because she is a dame.
All I can say Kelly is that if you treat people with contempt then you will have to face the consequences that match your attitude.
Jason is fab IMO,he tells it how it is.

In the sun today she has gone from blaming the chair prop to now it being her partners injury being the reason that she went out Dame Diva

Nothing to do with the fact that she just can't skate then???

Still worse things could have happened to her than losing this.....just think if she had accepted Tom Cruise's (alleged) dinner invitation.......it could be Kelly Holmes instead of Katie Holmes ...........awaiting a happy event!

Not equally - FAR MORE SO. They not only won an impressive list of medals they also won over tens of thousands of people who had never been interested in skating before.

Plus they have stuck at it and encouraged and supported many of the next generation of skaters.

And please, DON'T FORGET ROBIN. I'll never forget those back-flips. He was a marvel and, again, still around and promoting the sport/art over 20 years later.

They are the super-heroes of British ice-skating and the three of them should be given titles - not that titles mean much anymore, they're given so freely.



As for Jason - couldn't agree more, he awards high marks (and not just to Bonnie) when he sees fit and gives constructive criticism when it's needed. It's a shame that some of the contestants don't understand the difference between constructive and negative criticism.