EXCLUSIVE: Greg Rutherford reveals why Strictly is more nervewracking than the Olympics

The moment before hitting the dancefloor in front of 10 million people on Strictly is much more nerve-wracking than competing in the Olympic final – it’s the most nervous I’ve ever been in my life. You're going out and you're standing in front of one sixth of the country, because that's how many people watch the show, and you've got to do something that you've never done before.

At least when I compete at the Olympics or a world final, I know exactly what I am doing when I get on that runway: I’ve practiced my entire life for those moments. Obviously you realise the magnitude of certain events, like going into the Olympics. You want to win, you want to do well, but the difference is - and I think this is the thing with dancing - when you step on to the dance floor, you always feel like you're being judged on every tiny step.

I think a lot of people are very worried to go and let loose; I most certainly was when I started this process. If I get a step wrong on the dance floor it will ruin everything, whereas if I get a step slightly wrong on the runway I know what to do to adjust in order to still have a good jump. That makes the stakes, and the nerves, higher in dancing.

There’s also the challenge of trying to take on the persona of the character who is meant to be performing the dance. It’s really weird. I massively struggled with it at first but now you just get into it, you realise that people enjoy it more when you're giving it your all and trying hard. It's similar on one level, I can get into that zone, if you like, but equally, I'm never acting when I'm jumping; it's all about doing what I know, whereas with this I'm blagging it, basically.

The training for Strictly is so, so different to the demands of athletics. The hours are much longer, so you’re tired for a different reason – I think you are more tired mentally than physically. Every Monday I have to learn a new dance completely from scratch. Not many of them particularly crossover so it is not even very transferable. That makes it mentally taxing. I might get to training at 10am and not leave until 10pm.

They are long, long hours and you’ve got your feet in funny shoes for much of the day, so the body really starts to ache and hurt. When I am training for track and field I might have a five-hour day which could be my longest session of the week and I am usually finished by 3pm, so for the rest of the day I can recover or do other things. But with Strictly, I get up, I get ready, I dance all day, I go home, I eat, I go to bed and I repeat. It is very intense.

I hope there will be benefits for my day job with the increased awareness of my body and its different movements. I am so used to the linear movements of the long jump but this new-found awareness could help with other aspects. We will see once I go back to training properly next year how much it has helped, if at all. It is one of those things – it is difficult to say at this time.

Performing the rumba was probably my favourite moment to date. I really enjoyed the actual dance itself and I got in character and we got dressed up for Halloween. Sadly the judges did not like it as much but I absolutely loved it. It was the one performance that while doing it I got fully involved, which is something I never expected in this process. I thought I was always going to be that slightly awkward character, who really couldn’t get into it. All of a sudden you are going ‘oh, wow, I am really loving acting being this person and dressed up as some Edwardian gentleman’. It was a bizarre scenario.

Dressing up as Robin Hood was by far my favourite outfit, though. That was in week three for Movie Week, which feels like a lifetime ago. It was a dance I really enjoyed, the American Smooth, and we had a really good time. It was good fun to dress up as Robin Hood. I've always been a bit of a fan, so I got to be that character and have a bit of fun with it.

As for my favourite celebrity dancer, it has to be Judge Rob Rinder. We have a good relationship on and off the dancefloor. He has come from a similar background where he has not really danced before. We are in the same boat and I think he is doing a really good job. But to be perfectly honest, and I know it sounds a bit clichéd, but everybody is so nice. I get on with everybody and I suspect I will keep in contact with everyone after this process has finished.

Can I win it? I am by no means one of the best dancers – there are the big three if you like: Ore Oduba, Louise Redknapp and Danny Mac. So I am sitting below those on ability, but why not? As long as everybody at home likes what we are doing and votes for us then it would be lovely to take it all the way and win it.

We are just trying to do as well as we can each week. It is strange for me in that way because if I go to an athletics competition I am in it to win it and nothing else matters. But I am also quite happy to accept there are things that I am not that good at in my life, and with dancing, I am doing alright but I am not exactly great at it. We'll see how far it goes.

I've not seen Usain Bolt dance. The thing is he'd find it quite difficult to find a partner as tall as him. I'm quite fortunate as Natalie Lowe, who I'm partnered with, is quite tall, so we work quite well together, but he's exceptionally tall so things like ballroom, I imagine, would be quite difficult.

I've had more experience at it now, so I'm obviously going to give myself a shout out. Usain… I don't know. I’ve seen him DJing very well, but I don’t know about his dancing. Maybe he'd be better at the Latin-based stuff and I'd be better at the ballroom.