Olympic discus glory only a two-step away

Forget the gym, it's back to the ballroom - dancing queen Beatrice Faumuina plans to shimmy and shake her way into the discus circle at the Beijing Olympic Games.

As she prepared for tonight's Dancing with the Stars series finale, the Commonwealth Games gold medalist told the Herald on Sunday she hoped to enlist dance partner Brian Jones for her training regime for her fourth Olympics.

"It'll be good because I don't enjoy sitting on a bike for an hour or swimming for an hour," she said. "[With dancing], the enjoyment factor's a lot higher."

Having never danced before joining the Dancing with the Stars line-up - unlike fellow finalist Lorraine Downes, who had two years of weekly Argentinian tango lessons under her belt - Faumuina said finding the right rhythm and timing were crucial to both her chosen sport and success on the dance floor.

The 31-year-old's plans to keep on dancing have put paid to suggestions that her weight loss on the show could have harmed her discus throwing ability.

"The fitness will add to my overall conditioning and enhance my performance in the end," she said.

"Queen Bea" was betting agency Centrebet's pre-season pick to win the series and remains the odds-on favourite. But Downes and partner Aaron Gilmore have danced their way from 21-1 outsiders to make the final, and while the former Miss Universe admitted she felt fatigued, she said the show had left her fitter and a much better dancer.

And as they prepared to take the stage for the last time, the two finalists told the Herald on Sunday who they'd like to see tripping the light fantastic on next season's hit show.

Downes listed former cricketer Chris Cairns, actress Shavaughn Ruakere, broadcasters Gary McCormick, Petra Bagust, Paul Holmes, Alison Mau and Paul Henry, and comedian Pio Terei, as the celebrities she'd most like to see in dancing shoes. And Faumuina's picks? The sometimes nice, sometimes nasty judges from the first two seasons: "Let's put them out there for a change."