WHO could forget that taut torso and perfect pecs when semi-clad, spray-tanned Louis Smith shimmied and sidestepped his way to Strictly Come Dancing victory last December?

A few months earlier the world-class gymnast had won an Olympic individual silver medal for the pommel horse as well as a team bronze, all at the tender age of 23.

But today he says he's not worried whether more people will remember him for his dancing prowess than his gymnastic skills.

"In the long run, memories of me winning Strictly will fade but I'll always have my Olympic medals," he says. "I'd like to be remembered as one of Britain's most successful gymnasts."

He laughs at the suggestion that in the space of a year he's become a sex symbol, appearing naked to raise cancer awareness in several magazines, as well as a gay icon.

"Doing those photo shoots was strange," he says. "It's a bit different. My mum loved the shots, though. She thought they were brilliant."

We're here to discuss his autobiography, My Story So Far, which charts his life from growing up on a Peterborough council estate, being diagnosed with ADHD and joining his brother's gym class aged four.

It's clear he owes a huge amount to his mother, Elaine, a part-time hairdresser who raised Louis and his older brother Leon with the help of 'Nan', his grandmother, after his father, Claude, left when Louis was three.

By the time he was seven, Elaine was making a 52-mile round trip to a top Huntingdon gym every weeknight, as well as on Sunday afternoons, so he could train. Nan helped with petrol costs.

"It's only as I've got older that I've fully realised the sacrifices she made to allow me to do all that," says Smith.

He has, at times, found it difficult to handle the fame his success has attracted, which started when he won a bronze medal at the Beijing Olympics. Then 19, he became the first British male gymnast to win an individual medal in 100 years.

He was bombarded by fans and the press, then started attending red carpet events as a new celebrity.