Kirsty Gallacher

With her popular afternoon slot on Sky Sports News, Kirsty is a well-known face on sports television. Gaining a nomination for Best Newcomer at the Royal Television Society Television Sports Awards for her first year with Sky Sport News in 1998, Kirsty soon moved on to appear regularly on programmes such as Soccer Extra, BBC Radio 5 Live’s Kirsty and Phil and Soccer AM.

Sports news aside, Kirsty has presented a host of other programmes, including morning show RI:SE, the ITV gameshow Simply the Best, Only Fools on Horses and the new version of Gladiators alongside Ian Wright. Kirsty has also proved that she too has sporting prowess when she won the third series of Channel 4’s winter sports series The Games.

Kirsty Jane Gallacher was born in Edinburgh on January 20th 1976. She is the daughter of one of Britain’s best-known golfers, and former Ryder Cup captain, Bernard Gallacher, and his wife Lesley Gallacher. Kirsty and her family moved from Scotland to Surrey when she was 18 months old as her father became the professional golfer at Wentworth Golf Club. Kirsty still lives in the area with her two young sons, Oscar (9) and Jude (5).

If she wasn’t busy enough already, Kirsty is also dedicated to keeping fit and has produced a work-out DVD alongside her role as a columnist for a fitness magazine. As well as taking on the challenge of Strictly, Kirsty is aiming to learn French this year and improve on her golf handicap which currently stands at 18.

While Kirsty’s sports knowledge and fitness may be well above par, she admits to never having danced before. Like all committed sportswomen, Kirsty “can’t wait to start training” and thinks “the journey will be fascinating.”