Thornblad and Rans 'pool' their resources

In recent years, it has been in vogue for some of Europe's most famous recently retired athletes to appear on reality TV programmes or the popular 'dancing with the stars' shows.

This autumn and winter though, it seems that some well-known names will be seen in the pool rather than in sequins and ballroom dancing attire.

Former top Swedish high jumper Linus Thornblad will appear in a Swedish television programme called “Celebrity Jump” where he will compete against other well-known Swedish personalities in a diving contest.

Thornblad, still only 28 and the 2007 European Athletics Indoor Championships silver medallist is back studying in college as well as doing TV commentary and has a personal best of 2.38m.

In similar fashion, the Belgian pole vault record holder Kevin Rans, who retired in 2010, will appear in the Flemish TV show 'The Big Jump‘when he competes against other Flemish celebrities diving into a pool.

Rans, uniquely, got silver medals at both the 200m and pole vault at the 2001 European Athletics Junior Championships and finished his career with a best of 5.70m, both indoors and outdoors.