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Dancing with the Stars 10 best Olympic contestants, ranked

Olympians Shawn Johnson and Meryl Davis on Dancing with the Stars
Olympians Shawn Johnson and Meryl Davis on Dancing with the Stars. Pic credit: ABC

The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games have fans dreaming of new competitors for Dancing with the Stars.

Names like Nathan Chen have DWTS fans imagining how amazing their Dancing could be on the show.

Others look at the excitement that Jason Brown brings and can only imagine what he could do in the ballroom.

U.S. Olympians are different, it seems, for fans of the ballroom dancing show. While many fans will turn their noses to dancers like JoJo Siwa, they often welcome Olympians with open arms.

While there are plenty of choices from this year’s Olympics, there are plenty of great Olympic stars from the past.

Here is a look at the 10 best Olympic stars to compete on Dancing with the Stars.

Hope Solo, Season 13

Hope Solo is a soccer star who appeared on Dancing with the Stars Season 13.

Solo won a gold medal in the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics for Team USA, and she brought her competitive nature to Dancing with the Stars to team with Maksim Chmerkovskiy.

The duo ended up making it to the final four before losing and finishing fourth overall that season.

Hope and Maks finished with an average score of 23.3, also fourth best.

Sadly, Maks had a bad experience with Holo, calling her a “shi**y person” after they worked together.

Nastia Liukin, Season 20

Natsia Liukin was a Russian-born American gymnast at the Olympic Games.

Natsia went on to win the All-Around event in the 2008 Olympic Games. She also won five medals, as well as nine World Championship medals. She is tied with Shannon Miller for the third highest world championship medals.

Natsia then joined Dancing with the Stars in Season 20 and teamed with multi-time winner Derek Hough.

The duo had high scores throughout the season, but finished up in fourth place. Their 36.6 average score was third best for all competitors.

Simone Biles, Season 24

Simone Biles is the most famous Olympic gymnast competing today. She has won seven Olympic medals in her career, trying her with Shannon Miller as the most ever for an American gymnast.

She could have won more, but she pulled out of the last Summer Olympics for mental health reasons.

She ended up joining Dancing with the Stars in Season 24 and teamed up with Sasha Farber.

While she had a lot of fans, and scored high throughout the season, she ended up finishing in fourth place. Her average score of 35.4 was third best.

Evan Lysacek, Season 10

Evan Lysacek is a retired Olympic figure skater. He won the gold medal in the 2010 Olympics, where he also won the U.S. Olympic Committee’s SportsMan of the Year.

Evan was a competitor on Dancing with the Stars Season 10, where he partnered with Anna Trebunskaya.

The two made it all the way to the finals before falling at the end to the team of Nicole Scherzinger and Derek Hough.

Evan finished in second place with an average score of 26.3.

Adam Rippon, Season 26

Adam Rippon is an Olympic figure skater who was a huge success before he ever made it to the Olympics.

Rippon won the 2010 Four Contents Championships and the 2016 U.S. National Championships. Then, in 2018, Rippon competed at the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea and won a bronze medal.

He immediately went into Dancing with the Stars later that year.

In Season 26, he teamed with Janna Johnson and won the Mirrorball trophy, beating NFL player Josh Norman in the finals.

Apolo Anton Ohno, Season 4

Apolo Anton Ohno was one of the best short track speed skaters in U.S. Olympic history.

Apolo won eight medals in the Winter Olympics, with two golds, two silvers, and four bronzes, making him the most decorated American at the Winter Olympics.

The U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame inducted him in 2019.

Apolo brought that competitive nature to the ballroom floor on Dancing with the Stars Season 4 and then again in the all athlete’s Season 15.

In Season 4, Apolo teamed with Julianne Hough and won it all, beating out Joey Fatone in the finals.

In the 15th season, Apolo was back, this time with Karina Smirnoff as his partner. The two made it to Week 9 and finished in fifth place.

Laurie Hernandez, Season 23

Laurie Hernandez was an artistic gymnast who competed in her debut year as a senior with the Final Five at the 2016 Summer Olympics.

The team won the gold medal in the team event, while Hernandez won the silver medal in the balance beam. She tried to return in 2021, but she did not qualify.

In between, Laurie competed in Dancing with the Stars Season 23.

She teamed with Val Chmerkovskiy and the duo went on to win it all in the end. They beat James Hinchcliffe in the finals with an average season score of 36.9.

Kristi Yamaguchi, Season 6

Kristi Yamaguchi was an Olympic figure skater from the 1992 Olympic Games, where she was the first Asian American woman to win a gold medal in competition.

While she was just in the Olympic Games once, she was inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 2005.

Three years later, at the age of 37, Kristi competed on Season 6 of Dancing with the Stars.

Kristi teamed with pro Mark Ballas and ended up winning the Mirrorball trophy, beating out NFL player Jason Taylor in the finals. Her overall average was a season high 28.3.

Shawn Johnson, Season 8

Shawn Johnson is a former artistic gymnast who won the gold medal in the 2008 Summer Olympics in the balance beam.

She also won the silver medal in the team, all-round, and floor exercise. She was also the 2007 all-round World Champion and won the Pan American Games gold medals five times.

In 2009, Shawn competed on Dancing with the Stars Season 8.

She teamed with partner Mark Ballas and the two went on to defeat Gilles Marini in the finals to take home the Mirrorball trophy. Their average score for the season was 26.9.

Shawn then returned in the All-Stars Season with Derek Hough. The two went on to have another solid run. The finished in second place, behind Melissa Rycroft.

Meryl Davis, Season 18

When Meryl Davis went onto Dancing with the Stars, she was the overall favorite from the start.

Meryl was an ice dancer, winning the gold medal in the 2014 Winter Olympics and the silver medal in the 2010 Olympic Games with partner Charlie White. She was also a six-time U.S. national champion.

In Season 8, Meryl joined DWTS and teamed with pro Maksim Chmerkovskiy and the two dominated the competition, winning the Mirrorball trophy by beating Amy Purdy and Derek Hough.

Their average season score of 28.4 was the season’s high as well. She ranks as one of the best champions in Dancing with the Stars history.

Dancing with the Stars is on hiatus. The dancing reality competition series will return to ABC in late 2022.

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