Strictly's Nikita Kuzmin's fears for role amid 'challenging' health condition
Strictly Come Dancing's professional dancer Nikita Kuzmin has quickly become a favourite among fans since he joined the show in 2021. He's bagged multiple Latin championships and made his debut on the BBC One hit show when he was paired with Tilly Ramsay, Gordon Ramsay's daughter. The duo danced their way to the tenth week of the competition before they were sadly knocked out just before the quarter-finals.
Nikita – who's from Ukraine – also danced with Paralympian Ellie Simmonds, and they became the sixth couple to leave the competition. Then, last year, he showed off his moves with Bad Education star Layton Williams, coming in second place. After their performance earlier in the series to a track from the movie Grease, Nikita said he felt like a "kid who was living his dream". This year he's partnered with Sam Quek.
When he first joined Strictly, Nikita expressed his amazement at the "magic" the show brings every year and shared his excitement about his "big chance" to be a part of it. "I've always been amazed by the magic Strictly Come Dancing brings. No matter what country I have found myself living in, I've never missed a chance to watch it," Nikita explained. "And joining it as a professional dancer is my big chance to make some magic on the most famous dance floor. I can't wait to give it my all!"
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Nikita has had to overcome some serious hurdles in his career. He has Type 1 diabetes, a chronic condition that requires daily monitoring. To keep track of his blood sugar levels, he uses a Libre sensor, a white patch on the back of his arm. The star opened up about the moment he was diagnosed with diabetes as a teen and confessed: "I mean, first of all, the message I would really love to send to all the kids and general people is that this is our superpower. We get to learn how to be responsible from a young age. How to deal with problems with the condition. And second of all, it's really important that we find someone with the same condition that we can look up to."
Nikita continued: "Like when I found out, I was 13 and I just came back to Ukraine and at that time, I'd been dancing already for nine years. I lived in three countries and everything because of that. So when I found out, I thought, 'My career's over,' and the next morning I woke up and I saw all those kids smiling and they were diabetics just like me. I went out of my room and - this is one of my best memories in my life - there was this wall of fame.
"It was all of the famous, successful diabetics - Olympians, Paralympians, presidents, actors - everything. And actually, I think I made quite a few of them up because I thought there was quite a few more people than there actually were. I checked a couple of days ago and most of them were not even there!"
