Karen Carney: Spinal condition affected my football career but it can’t stop me on Strictly
She has also blossomed into a storyteller, seamlessly transitioning in and out of character each week with the air of an A-list actor, punching the air at the end of each routine with a wide-eyed smile to boot. For someone who has continually broken glass ceilings as a pundit – Carney made history at the 2022 World Cup as part of the first all-female line-up to analyse a men’s match – it was little surprise to see her take the lead role in her gangster-fight scene with Gu when the pair performed their Argentine Tango.
She has spoken about how her Strictly experience has completely “rewired” her. “The aim, going into Strictly, was to (1) grow my confidence and (2) show a different side of myself,” reflects Carney. “Sometimes when you do your work, if I watch myself back, I think: ‘That really isn’t who I am.’
“My closest friends and family would say I’m quite goofy, you’re soft and sensitive. Those kinds of characteristics – you can’t really show them in football or the sports world. Going on Strictly, I wanted to show who I am a bit more, away from sport.”
The unbridled joy she has found in dancing is a world away from her life four years ago, when she received a torrent of sexist abuse following on-screen comments about Leeds United’s promotion to the Premier League. Carney quit X, then known as Twitter, and has spoken about how the experience left her as a shell of a person and questioning whether she wanted to continue with punditry. As a contestant on this year’s show, she has re-engaged with social media for the first time in a while, documenting behind-the-scenes snippets of her Strictly journey. “I still set boundaries on social media, for sure,” she says.
Carney is tight-lipped about the circumstances which led to her being announced on the BBC’s flagship dance show, which has battled to save its public image in the wake of negative experiences by a number of contestants in recent seasons. But as a lifelong Strictly fan, for Carney it was a no-brainer. “It was a quick turnaround, that’s all I’ll say,” she says. “Once you get offered Strictly you don’t say no to it. I don’t think my mum would have been very happy as she’s a huge fan too.”
It is fitting, then, that Carney’s Couple’s Choice routine on Saturday night will be a tribute to her mum, Marie, to Lady Gaga’s Born This Way. “When I was 11, I told my mum I was going to play for England,” says Carney. “The song was fitting for both me and Carlos, because we’ve both had barriers in our journeys but our mums have been really supportive and encouraging. We just both listened to the song and got emotional about it.”
There is one thing, though, she will hardly miss – the heels. “Who wears heels nowadays, everyone’s a trainer-person, aren’t they?” says Carney. “It’s hard enough walking in them, let alone jumping and spinning in them!”
