Strictly Come Dancing fans are increasingly backing Olympic athlete Tabby Stoecker as a potential “dark horse” for the 2026 Glitterball trophy, despite her remaining further down the bookmakers’ list of favorites. During the “Icons Week” performance on October 17, Stoecker and her professional partner Mark Karmalita earned a score of 29 points for their Samba to music by RAYE, a performance that sparked significant debate across social media platforms.
While she currently sits behind leaderboard frontrunners, viewers on X and Reddit have labeled Stoecker “underrated,” pointing to her technical precision and core strength as evidence that she could overtake the current favorites. This fan sentiment contrasts with the current betting market; Lacey Turner remains the 6/4 favorite to win the series according to Betfred, while Stoecker is positioned at 10/1 with William Hill.
Stoecker’s physical discipline is rooted in a high-performance background that extends beyond the ballroom. She is a Tabby Stoecker gold medalist in the mixed team skeleton event from the 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Milano-Cortina. Beyond her sliding career, she is also a former circus skills performer with training in trapeze and juggling. These attributes have led supporters to argue that her athletic foundation makes her more capable of handling complex choreography than her current scores might suggest.
The competition has already seen the departures of Chris Appleton and Melanie Walters, who were the first two contestants eliminated from the 2026 series. As the show moves past Week 4, the pressure is mounting on the remaining celebrities, while the public remains vocal about Stoecker’s potential.
The discrepancy between fan enthusiasm and bookmaker odds often defines the middle weeks of the competition, as technical improvements begin to separate the contenders. For Stoecker, the narrative among the “Strictly” audience is shifting from her being a sporting novelty to a legitimate threat to established favorites like Turner.
