AS high-octane game show Gladiators returned to our screens last night one of its stars has told of the horror accident that forced her to pull out of the reboot.
Ella-Mae Rayner — Comet in the much anticipated series — is faced with scaling a 30ft wall in under one minute during her thrilling debut.
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But she was left heartbroken later in the run after shattering her ankle and foot in multiple places during filming in June.
Now, in an exclusive chat with The Sun on Sunday, the former gymnast and cheerleader said: “It just goes to show that we aren’t acting. This isn’t WWE, this is one of the toughest shows on TV.
“The injury was really, really tough but I had the team around me and everyone was amazing. I couldn’t have asked for a better medical team.
Ella-Mae, 28, ruptured three ligaments as well as breaking her ankle and foot during the games staged at the Utilita Arena in Sheffield.
Viewers won’t see the incident.
She was treated by an onsite team before later undergoing a private operation to stabilise the broken bones in her foot.
At the time, she shared a photo from her hospital bed on Instagram captioned: “Life is not about how hard you hit, it’s about how hard you get hit and keep moving.”
Seven months on, she is still undergoing physiotherapy.
She said: “I am nearly there but it is always going to be an injury I know about.
“But it is not going to stop me doing what I want to do. You are going face to face and it is contact, so injuries are part and parcel of it.
“Comet is here to stay.”
The original series, hosted by Ulrika Jonsson and ex-footballer John Fashanu, ran from 1992 to 2000 on ITV but was axed after losing more than half its viewers, dropping to six million.
It was back last night as new hosts Bradley Walsh, 63, and son Barney, 26, welcomed 16 new Gladiators.
The episode saw the first set of Gladiators take on the Contenders in a duel while balancing on a podium.
It brought the return of fan favourite The Eliminator, where two Contenders — Finley and Kerry — secured a place in the quarter final after completing the legendary course.
After a series of challenges, including the feared Eliminator, one man and one woman will be crowned champions at the end of the series.
‘Flipped my world upside down’
But they will not get an easy ride, as Comet’s fellow Gladiator Sabre knows.
Real name Sheki McCoy, Sabre was also forced out of the show, after tearing her hamstring.
The 35-year-old said: “Sometimes you are the hammer, sometimes you are the nail.
“While filming for Gladiators I incurred a little battle injury, a hamstring tear. Up to that point, every single day was a blessing and an unforgettable experience that I would repeat in a second.”
At the time, a BBC spokesman said that “the health and well-being of all Gladiators, contenders and crew is of paramount importance” but that injuries are not “unusual” given the “high-impact nature of the show”.
Ella-Mae, who is from Hertfordshire, said: “I have had injuries before and that helped me. I had been in that boat before and I was like, ‘Right, OK, I know exactly what I need to do here and I know what my recovery is going to look like’. I was really positive.”
She also told how a previous injury had “flipped my world upside down”.
That happened while filming a video to become a stuntwoman shortly after graduating from the University of Birmingham.
She said: “I had given up gymnastics years before but to get on the stunt register you have to tick off a load of moves and skills within each sport.
“I was training up those skills because you have to video them and send them off, and I pretty much landed bolt upright and crushed my ankle. The doctor said I could never do gymnastics again — so I proved them wrong.”
She added: “I shattered my heel. I had to have surgery and metal work in there and they said anything high-impact was off the cards.
No gymnastics, no diving, no cheerleading. Even running had a question mark. At that point I was told everything I loved to do was being taken away from me.”
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She added: “That genuinely was the making of me and I wouldn’t be sitting here speaking to you right now if not for that.
“It gave me the drive and motivation as I was so sick of lying around. The gym saved me at that point and I loved it so much I put my all into it and then became an online coach.
“It was a really, really low point for me but I turned it into a positive.”
Ella-Mae’s journey to becoming a Gladiator started at aged five during after-school gymnastics classes.
Comet, who will make her debut next week, has the special skill of flexibility and can walk on her hands.
She explained: “I tried all the sports under the sun but that was the one I had a real love for, so I did that from age five to 13 years old.
“I did county, regional, some national and I did one international competition, so I have represented Great Britain.”
At 5ft 8in, Ella-Mae is three inches taller than the average UK woman, and she says her proportions got in the way of pursuing the sport.
‘I was sick of feeling sorry for myself’
She explained: “I am tall and flexible and it just became a little bit too demanding on my body at that age. I was going into my teenage years so I gave up when I was 13, then I transitioned to high-board diving.”
She went on to become a competitive diver and was offered a scholarship in America aged 18, but chose to stay close to her family.
Despite now having 313,000 followers on Instagram for her online coaching, Ella-Mae says she had issues with her body image while growing up as an athlete.
She said: “Following my first injury I really struggled with body image.
“I was so used to having an athletic physique and I didn’t really have to think about food or training.
“I couldn’t do what I loved any more and I put on weight. When I was sick of feeling sorry for myself and moping around, that is when I started going to the gym.”
Ella-Mae credits her boyfriend, fellow fitness coach James Exton, for pushing her to become Comet.
She said: “He is my No1 supporter, even when we were training for the show.
“Some of the games are very one-on-one, with brute force, so I started rugby tackling him in the park and going through drills.”
Known as the “fit power couple” among pals, she said: “Yeah, I guess they see us like that. I am very much independent as well, so it is nice that he can be on the journey with me.”
Ella-Mae still wants to pursue her dream of becoming a stuntwoman.
Asked if she has her eye on a Hollywood film, she said: “Imagine working with Tom Cruise on Mission: Impossible, that would be unreal.”
Unreal yes, but you would bet it is not mission impossible for her.
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