Gladiators: Youngest star 'feels like a superhero'

Emily Steel, aka Dynamite, is the youngest ever Gladiator on the show at 20 years old

The youngest Gladiator to star in a highly-anticipated remake of the TV classic has said young audiences have treated her "like a superhero".

A BBC reboot of the popular show, which aired on ITV in the 1990s, returns on Saturday with a cast of 16 new stars.

That includes a student from Greater Manchester who was born years after the first show came off air in 2000.

Twenty-year-old Emily Steel, aka Dynamite, said it was an "incredible feeling" to join the new series.

Raised in the Altrincham and Hale areas, Emily was a swimmer at an early age, waking up at 04:00 each day to train and then compete in national competitions.

She later moved into weightlifting and is now a full-time CrossFit athlete who has taken part in elite level competitions from Marbella and Miami, all while studying for a degree in sport science at Loughborough University.

Emily said the new generation of female Gladiators wanted to inspire women

Speaking to BBC Radio Manchester, she said the next generation of female Gladiators wanted to inspire women by "being who we are, and expressing that".

"That's what we want to show, we want to show you can be strong, you can be powerful".

The series' return is set to see the return of fans' favourite games like The Eliminator alongside new challenges that put both contenders and gladiators through new tests of speed and strength.

Emily said she wanted to show athletes can "perform well under pressure and you can do it with grace".

"You don't throw a strop every time you lose a game, so that's really important for me to kind of set that kind of example for all the little kids watching," she said.

Gladiators returns to screens in the UK on BBC One later

Younger crowds who watched her action at the Utilita Arena in Sheffield where the show was filmed looked at her "like there was a superhero", she said.

"It is just such an incredible feeling, because I am still young just trying to get through university, so it was nice to have little kids look up to me and think 'wow'.

"That makes me think I am doing something right".

Gladiators begins at 17:50 on BBC One.