There is the question. According to the Mirror today Jessica competed in Strictly Ice Dancing

Is it fair that she is allowed to compete- when she has an advantage like this- I know Chris played ice hockey but is this fair

David Seaman did Strictly Ice Dancing too, didn't he?

If he did then surely that should have ruled him out of DOI

To be fair, Jessica is obviously going to have a little advantage, since she is already used to the ice, perhaps similar to Michael Underwood.

But, she is hardly going to be magnificent in the first week and skate like Jayne and Chris do .

Strictly Ice Dancing was a one off hour long show, Jessica danced for a few minutes....i hardly would say she is at a major advantage; and that was a good few years ago!

David S was not only in Strictly Dancing on Ice, he actually won the show, and had skated previously.

Jessica's prior experience might give her the edge for the first week or 2, but that's about all. After that the others tend to catch up. And to be fair to her, quite a few of the celebs who go on the show have skated before to some degree.

I have enormous admiration for those who go on the show who have never put a pair of skates on their feet before.....

Totally agree with those sentiments there Kaycee- that is what DOI should be about- complete novices learning to skate

Agree, but someone who has just perhaps skated around in circles at their local skating rink, will still be a complete novice when it comes to doing lifts and tricks etc etc. Those who have done more than that do have the advantage, and maybe it's questionable about whether they should take part.

But then Strictly has the same problems! Some celebs have insisted they have "never danced before" .... if you get my drift!!!!

But surely everyone has been skating at some point in their lives? They might not have had training, but I mean who didn't go skating with their mates as a kid? Or go to the rink as a treat with their parents? I know I did. But you don't have the fearless streak that you had as a child when your adult.

I think it would be quite hard to find someone who'd never been ice skating at all.

David Seaman has done both shows and beat Jessica in the BBC show - she was top with the judges and he was top with the public so won!

He was a hockey jock and she had skating lessons as a child so both had experience before the show - however her publicity says she hadn't skated since childhood when she did Strictly Ice Dancing (which involved 4 weeks training and one show), and hasn't skated since she did that.

I'd imagine she is pretty rusty if that is true, and while she might have an advantage at the beginning, we'e seen complete non skaters come through to win 2 out of the 3 series. David Seaman only managed 4th place in DOI 1 despite winning SID (although had it been on scores and votes only with no skate off (against Bonnie) - he would probably have made the final.

I don't think you forget it, I hadn't skated for over 20 years until a couple of years ago and it only took me a couple of weeks to get back to the standard I was (which wasn't great but ok)

Depends how SID was decided - was it largely down to the public and how good was the competition? I agree coming behind David doesn't suggest Jessica was that good.

The betting odds though are heavily in favour of the people who have skating experience (Ray and Jessica) plus anyone with a current ITV show or evidence of past support in a talent show) - not as far as we know leaks of who looks most physically or artistically enabled.

Its going to be important for anyone else good to start pretty well and make an impact. if they don't, they may find they are in a pack of similar people competing for whats left of the votes as people get behind people who start with what may turn out to be an important advantage - more so this year when a lot of the girls are similar in age and probably ability.

SID was scored and voted just like SCD - Judges scores converted to leaderboard points and public vote converted to points. Highest combined score won.

Jessica wasn't bad (the best of a VERY bad bunch though), and deserved to be top with the judges, but nowhere near as good as the DOI celebs have been.

I went skating again after a few years gap and found it harder than I thought to pick it up again - yes I could stay up and move around freely (eventually) but what I found was that with age comes the fear of falling over . I bounced when I was younger and it definitely is harder to get back up after falls these days - so its a confidence thing.

It will be interesting to see how they all get on on the Sunday show. I think we could be in for some surprises. DD says that Zoe Salmon did some skating thing for Blue Peter and she was awful apparently.......

I think that was the case with John Barrowman as well, but it didn't make him a fantastic skater.
Michael Underwood is bound to have an advantage over the others. He has not only skated before, but he actually knows the ropes when it comes to performing in the show!

I don't think it really matters whether she's got skating experience. Does anyone ever complain when shows like "Soapstar Superstar" were on TV if some of the actors had taken part in musicals before?

Yes her skating history may give her an advantage at the beginning but it could also be a disadvantage as she may start off great but not improve much throughout the show, whereas some of the contestants who haven't got the experience could surpass her abilities in the long run.

Personally, if she's entertaining I don't really care how much experience she has.

It might help doing that but I think what will really help are the ice skating lessons she had as a child. She may not remember the complex stuff, but I think it's a huge foundation when it comes to remembering the more basic stuff, I don't think you'll properly forget.

Bit of a sweeping statement "surely everyone has been skating at some point....."

Not everyone is lucky enough to live anywhere near a skating rink (they're hardly in every town like swimming pools). In fact, I can truthfully say I only know of one person I've ever met who has skated.

I have skated for fun before - but I am always very wobbly when I get back on to the ice

As Kaycee said earlier there are celebs on Strictly come Dancing who have previous dancing experience and those that have never set foot on a dance floor in their lives - I think it's al part of the show tbh

I agree. He wouldnt have to learn all the basic moves either so he is at more of an advantage.

Not to mention that this is his 3rd time, once as a standby, then last year.

He's had far too much advantage training wise & even performance than the rest of them and should not have been reconsidered this year...totally unfair.

It does seem unfair to put him in amongst all the newcomers. I felt sorry for him when he broke his leg last year, but it was down to bad luck and that shouldn't have given him the automatic right to skate again this year!

Personally I'm glad Michael has been given a second chance, he was fun to watch and if you remember not exactly the best skater before the accident and its bound to make him more tentative

I dont think it gives her much of an advantage, it was a one off show like three years ago? i doubt that much training went into it, she may have known some of the basics when she started training for doi but they have been training for months now so theres no reason why they couldnt all be as good as her by now.

Gaynor hadn't skated, Kyran hadn't skated, Suzanne hadn't skated.

I did like him, and was sorry he had to leave after his accident, but I do tend to agree with you. Remains to be seen what the voting viewers think ... if they agree, he just won't get the votes.