Celebrity SAS 2022 line-up: Full list of recruits

The SAS: Who Dares Wins cast initially featured 14 celebrities, but now only seven remain as they head into the most difficult phase of the course: the strict SAS selection.

Here’s everything you need to know about the remaining seven finalists as well as the original cast.

SAS: Who Dares Wins 2022 line-up: Who are the finalists?

The remaining seven contestants on the show are as follows:

• Maisie Smith
• Jennifer Ellison - Out
• Calum Best
• Ferne McCann
• Fatima Whitbread - Out
• Ashley Cain
• AJ Pritchard
• Curtis Pritchard - Out
• Dwain Chambers - Out
• Jade Jones
• Shannon Courtenay
• Jonathan Broom-Edwards - Out

Read on for more details about the 2022 contestants.

Maisie Smith

Age: 21

Instagram: @maisiesmithofficial

Twitter: @maisie_smith_

The actress is best known for her stint as Tiffany Butcher in EastEnders, and previously teamed up with Gorka Marquez for Strictly Come Dancing in 2020, reaching the final but eventually losing out to Bill Bailey and Oti Mabuse.

Smith has described her time on the show as life-changing. “I only remember just feeling so empowered and strong,” she said. “It was brutal and it was pain I’d never felt and exhaustion, dehydration, all of that. But it was also the moment I felt best in myself. It just completely changed my outlook on everything.”

Calum Best

Age: 41

Instagram: @mrcalumbest

Twitter: @CalumBest

The son of legendary footballer George, Best appeared in not one but two seasons of Celebrity Love Island back in the Noughties. These days he’s an entrepreneur with his own brand of healing crystals and a poké restaurant.

Though he admitted that he sometimes struggled with following the super-strict SAS rules, he described the show as “one of the most challenging, yet rewarding things I've ever done.”

“I'm so grateful for it because of what it did to test my mind and my body,” he added. I think that if everybody, at some point in their life, can step out of that comfort zone and do something that tests you to your absolute limits, all you will do will grow from it. It might be horrible at the time, but you will be happy that you tried. And I am more than happy that I tried my hand at that world.

Ferne McCann

Age: 32

Instagram: @fernemccann

Twitter: @fernemccann

Like Wicks, McCann first appeared on our screens as part of the cast of TOWIE. She went on to appear on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here, ending up in third place, and has shared her experience of motherhood with viewers in Ferne McCann: First Time Mum since 2017.

“I kind of went into Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins with exactly the same mindset as when I was [in] leading up to giving birth to my daughter, which sounds ridiculous,” she said of her preparations. “But honestly, when you're in that environment and it's really challenging, you have to draw from experiences that you've been through to find the resilience and the strength to get you through.”

Ashley Cain

Age: 31

Instagram: @mrashleycain

Twitter: @mrashleycain

Former Coventry City winger Cain suffered a tragic loss last year when his baby daughter Azaylia died at just eight months old from leukaemia. He and his partner Safiyya Vorajee have since announced that they had set up The Azaylia Foundation to fight childhood cancer.

“Losing my daughter was the most difficult experience of my life,” he said. “I think to combat trauma you need to step outside your comfort zone and see who you really are. There’s no better way to do that than on Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins, so when the opportunity came, I took it with both hands!"

AJ Pritchard

Age: 27

Instagram: @aj11ace

Twitter: @aj11ace

The former Strictly Come Dancing pro has also appeared on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here, and said his experience on some of “the biggest shows there are on TV” meant that he didn’t have anything to prove this time around.

“When I walked into this TV show, I really went in there to enjoy the experience and not to feel like, ‘Oh, I’ve got to be number one,’” he said. “Not to really script it, just to be myself and enjoy the journey. I think that's one thing that I will take away from this show is really being in the moment and not having to worry about all the other stuff that's out of my control.”

Jade Jones

Age: 29

Instagram: @jadejonestkd

Twitter: @jadejonestkd

Double Olympic gold medallist and Taekwondo champion Jones is among the sports stars taking part in this year’s edition of the show. After a disappointing result in the Tokyo Olympics last year, she said she wanted to prove to herself that she still has the determination to be a winner.

“I’d just lost my third Olympics going into it, so I wanted to figure myself out a little bit,” she said. “Most people go on it to see for yourself if you’re a strong person. So I wanted to see how strong I was.”

Shannon Courtenary

Age: 29

Instagram: @shannon_courtenay

Professional boxer Courtenay previously held the WBA female bantamweight title, and wanted to take part in Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins so that the public could see another side to her character and get to know her outside the ring.

“I felt like it would kind of get across the real me,” she revealed. “In my industry you only get to see me, mainly my character, come out on fight week. But that's not really the true me. You get amped up, you're wanting to fight, you're full of adrenaline. I feel like the nation hasn't really got to see the real me away from the ring. And if there's any show that can actually break you down, reveal your true colours, it is Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins.”

Jonathan Broom-Edwards

Age: 34

Instagram: @broomedwardst44

Twitter: @BroomEdwardsT44

High jumper Broom-Edwards is a Paralympic medalist who was born with talipes equinovarus, also known as a clubbed foot. He received an OBE earlier this year for services to athletics, and certainly took his preparation for Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins seriously.

“I spoke to a good friend of mine who's a personal trainer, and he put together this gruelling plan for me to try and get me ready, which involved all types of endurance HIIT work, CrossFit stuff, but also training in sleep deprivation, training in cold water submersion,” he explained. “It was horrible, but it prepared me in the right way.”

Jennifer Ellison

Age: 39

Instagram: @jenniferellisonjellistudios

Twitter: @jelliofficial

Soap star Ellison played Emily Shadwick in the legendary Scouse soap Brookside from 1998 to 2003, and released a handful of pop singles in the early Noughties. She’s appeared in the film version of Phantom of the Opera, and played Roxie Hart in the West End production of Chicago.

She was keen to take on the SAS challenge after an extended career break. “I’ve had this kind of break from what I grew up doing and love doing, and kind of lost my identity a little bit,” she said. “So the opportunity came along and I just thought, ‘I’m going to grab it with both hands and see if I can still do my stuff.’ It was more of a challenge for me personally, to see if I could test myself and kind of remember who I am and the fire I used to have inside of me.”

Ellison was eliminated in episode 5.

Fatima Whitbread - ELIMINATED

Age: 61

Instagram: @fatima.whitbread

Twitter: @FatimaWh1tbread

At 61, retired javelin thrower and Olympic medalist Whitbread is Who Dares Wins’ oldest ever celebrity contestant, and wanted to take part to prove that she still had the physical fitness and mental strength to rise to the challenge.

“I would've liked to have done it as a young Whitbread because I think I would've cracked it wide open, but as an older lady, I’d like to think I've flown the flag really well in representation for the older generation, the middle aged,” she said. “It’s not just a young person’s game.”

Whitbread was eliminated in episode 5.

Curtis Pritchard - ELIMINATED

Age: 26

Instagram: @curtispritchard12

Twitter: @CurtisPritchard

AJ’s younger brother Curtis is best known for his time in the Love Island villa, when he appeared alongside Gill and firmly established himself in viewers’ minds as “the person that gets up and makes everyone a coffee so everyone’s ready for the morning.”

After breaking his shoulder while mountain biking last year, the dancer said he was worried that the injury might flare up with taking part in Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins. “Going on the show, I wasn't a thousand percent perfect,” he said. “I still had remnants of an injury. I could feel it, I was still aware of it and still had to protect it and look after it.”

Pritchard was eliminated in episode 4.

Dwain Chambers - ELIMINATED

Age: 44

Instagram: @dwainchambers100

Twitter: @dwainchambers

100m sprinter Chambers picked up medals at the European and World Championships, but received a ban for doping at the peak of his career. He eventually returned to athletics and took part in the 2012 Olympics in London.

The athlete described his time filming Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins in Jordan as “the best experience of my life… It put me through some highs. It took me through a series of lows that make you realise who you are.

“You're either somebody who crumbles under pressure, or you step up. And every single one of us stepped up. I loved every single bit of it. Would I do it again? Hell no! But I’m glad I did it.”

Chambers was eliminated in episode 4.

Pete Wicks – WITHDREW

Age: 33

Instagram: @p_wicks01

Twitter: @P_wicks01

Wicks found fame when he joined The Only Way is Essex in 2015, and has since cropped up on a string of reality shows including Celebs Go Dating (where he formed an unlikely double act with fellow reality star and former Who Dares Wins contestant Sam Thompson), Celebrity Island with Bear Grylls and Celebrity MasterChef.

“It's just so different to anything I've done before,” he said. “I’m fortunate to have a very pampered life, so to get the chance to test what you're truly made of was an opportunity I just couldn’t turn down.”

Unfortunately, Wicks was forced to leave the competition after breaking his ribs during a challenge in episode 2.

Amber Gill – ELIMINATED

Age: 25

Instagram: @amberrosegill

Twitter: @AmberRoseGill

A Love Island favourite who won the reality competition in 2019 and can still be relied upon to provide biting Twitter commentary when the show is on air, Gill said she decided to take part in Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins to challenge viewers’ preconceptions about reality stars.

“I think coming off a show like Love Island and being on Instagram, people have a certain expectation about me and I wanted to show that I’m more than that,” she said. “That was what I was kind of thinking. You always get tied to these sorts of stereotypes about reality stars and I wanted to prove to everyone that I'm not just a bikini. There’s more to me than that.”

Gill was the first contestant to be eliminated from Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins after falling behind the group during a crawl through the desert in episode 2.

Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins airs on Channel 4 on Sundays at 9.05pm. If you’re looking for more to watch, check out our TV Guide or visit our dedicated Entertainment hub for the latest news.

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