After receiving two medals in the Rio Olympics, Laurie Hernandez is back and ready for more competition. Although this time her competition is different. This time she is competing with celebrities instead of olympians and the sport is dancing instead of gymnastics.
Just a month after the Olympics in Rio, 16-year old Olympic gymnast Laurie Hernandez is a contestant on the new season of Dancing With the Stars. The season premiered on Monday September 12, 2016 on ABC. The show pairs celebrities with dance professionals. There are 13 total celebrity-dance professional pairs on the show and they all compete against each other for judge’s points and audience votes. The pair with the lowest combined votes is eliminated from the show every week until only one pair remains.
The new season has plenty of competition with some of the celebrity contestants being top notch athletes just as Hernandez. Fellow olympian Ryan Lochte and NFL player Calvin Johnson are the other featured athletes out of the group of celebrities on the show.
Hernandez is partnered with professional dancer Valentin Chmerkovskiy. The duo took first place in the premier, which doesn’t come as a shocker to anyone who watched her shine at the Olympics. It would appear as though Hernandez has a leg up on the competition because of her impressive background in gymnastics, which is not all that different from dancing. Chmerkovskiy is a two-time World Dance Champion and Hernandez skills in gymnastics will aid her in mastering tricky dance moves to come this season. Good things are expected to come from the Hernandez-Chmerkovskiy pair.
On the season premier, the pair came in first. On the fourth week of the show, they blew the judges and crowd away earning the first perfect score of the season, coming in first again and dominating the competition.
You can vote for Hernandez by dialing 1-800-868-3407 or online. Don’t forget to stay tuned on Hernandez’s progress Monday’s at 8p.m. on ABC.
