Sam Nixon & Alexandra Schauman

Children’s TV presenter Sam Nixon has been watching former Dancing On Ice champion Ray Quinn’s performances for inspiration as he prepares to take to the ice in the new series.

“It's just amazing to watch him. It does massively inspire you, he's just fantastic,” says Sam. “I must admit I’ve been watching Ray Quinn a lot, which is stupid because there's no way I'm going to be anywhere near as good as that!”

Naturally, he’s looking forward to going head-to-head with TV co-presenter Mark Rhodes. “I suppose it would be a nice little victory for either myself or Mark if one of us did better than the other,” he says. “It's weird because we’ve have not seen each other train. We do everything together, but with this we're doing it separately - we don't know how each other are doing.”

Alexandra began competing nationally in 1986, working her way up to international competitions as well as competing for the Finnish National Team. In 1992 Alexandra placed 2nd in the Finnish Championships. 

In 1998 Alexandra turned professional, touring in shows including Holiday On Ice.

In 2008, Schauman partnered ex-footballer Jesper Blomqvist in the Swedish Dancing on Ice, going right to the final and finishing as runner-up, and in 2009 she joined the UK Dancing On Ice Live Tour, performing a routine with her professional partner and husband, Lukasz Rozycki.

2010 saw Alexandra’s UK Dancing On Ice debut. She partnered Dr Hilary Jones, and the pair were eliminated in the sixth week. She again joined the Dancing On Ice Live Tour, this time partnering 2009 champion Ray Quinn.

She returned for a second series of Dancing On Ice in 2011 and was paired with the cricketer, Dominic Cork, they were eliminated in Show 4.