Column:: Skaters show their edge as ‘Dancing with the Stars’ special all-athletes edition gets underway
Quadruple jumps are not required to win “Dancing with the Stars,” which on Monday launched a four-week mini-season showcasing athletes.
“Thank God,” figure skater Adam Rippon, who never mastered the four-revolution jumps that capture Olympic titles but won hearts with his artistry and bold personality, said with profound relief.
Skaters had an edge in the show’s first week, and that’s easy to understand. They’re accustomed to performing to music for an audience and to wearing sequins, which appear to be required and purchased by the ton.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was dressed in blindingly shiny gold for a number in which young dancers circled him like a human maypole while he gamely tried to shimmy to Stevie Wonder’s “Signed Sealed Delivered.” He and partner Lindsay Arnold didn’t get the highest scores from the judges but won enough fan votes to return next week.
“I’m representing Baby Boomers,” said Abdul-Jabbar, who turned 71 in April. “I had a good time, I had fun, and I learned a few things.”
And he didn’t get hurt.
“Yeah,” he said, “that’s amazing too.”
Arike Ogunbowale, who hit game-winning shots for Notre Dame’s women’s basketball team in the NCAA semifinals and final, danced her salsa number wearing a blue sequined dress that resembled a long basketball jersey and — bless her heart — sneakers.
After she and partner Gleb Savchenko had moved on to Week 2, a woman accompanying her warned reporters not to ask Ogunbowale about basketball.
The reason?
Such discussions would violate NCAA rules. Apparently, the NCAA has nothing more important to worry about than prohibiting Ogunbowale from promoting a sport in which she excels, one that needs and deserves attention.
The competitors in the show’s first all-athletes competition were diverse in their talents and their dancing ability. It was strange to see them away from the ice, court, or field, and the transition was rocky for some.
Former Yankees and Red Sox outfielder Johnny Damon, who joked, “I’ve been embarrassed on national TV so many times,” did a semblance of a foxtrot with partner Emma Slater and didn’t make the final cut.
Two-time Olympic snowboarding gold medalist Jamie Anderson, who conceded, “I underestimated the whole situation,” while rehearsing her Viennese waltz, also didn’t advance.
Washington Redskins cornerback Josh Norman and partner Sharna Burgess tied Rippon and partner Jenna Johnson for the highest score, 24 out of 30.
Pink-sequin-clad Mirai Nagasu of Arcadia, who said during the Pyeongchang Olympics she was auditioning for “DWTS,” got her wish and did well in her debut with partner Alan Bersten, earning 23 points.
“This is not easy because I’ve never ballroom danced before,” said Nagasu, whose historic triple axel jump in the team competition at Pyeongchang helped the U.S. team earn bronze medals. “Figure skating comes more naturally to me because I started when I was 5.”
Nagasu’s score was later equaled by Tonya Harding, whose reputation is undergoing an all-out rehabilitation effort following the release in January of the movie “I, Tonya.”
During a filmed segment before she and Sasha Farber danced a foxtrot, Harding said figure skating had been “taken” from her, conveniently ignoring she earned her punishment by pleading guilty to conspiring to hinder prosecution and admitting she knew about the 1994 assault on rival skater Nancy Kerrigan but refused to tell law enforcement officials afterward.
Oh, that.
Harding was showered with flowers Monday and won gushing praise from pro dancer Slater.
“She really is a lovely, lovely, lovely lady and she deserves to go all the way,” Slater said.
Farber agreed.
“She hasn’t performed in front of judges in a long time and she had something taken from her and today was the first time she performed and let all that out, all that negative energy, all that was done before, just blow it away,” he said. “Tonight is a new start, a new day and a new Tonya.”
Voters seemed to remember the old Tonya. She barely advanced.
“All I wanted to do was go out there and prove to myself that I could do this and that I belong here,” said Harding, who was stripped of her 1994 U.S. title and banned for life from U.S. Figure Skating Assn. competitions. “I wanted to show people that I can be elegant and beautiful. They never saw that side of me before.”
Mending her reputation, she said, isn’t her concern.
“I’m here to have fun,” she said. “Sasha has turned me into a lovely lady who can dance a little bit.”
Rippon’s dancing was impressive. A hero to the gay community since he came out three years ago, his superb technique has long made him a favorite of figure skating fans. His artistry wasn’t always rewarded in a sport that favors the brawny quadruple jumps that he can’t do, but he soon might add dance champion to his self-awarded title of America’s Sweetheart.
“I think I’m a born showman and something like this is just something I feel in my element,” he said after his sizzling cha-cha with Johnson.
Rippon is still touring with the Stars on Ice troupe but isn’t sure what else his future holds.
“I have a lot going on throughout the whole summer, but beyond that I think I’m just looking for a job,” he said. “There’s so many open doors right now and I’m trying to step through each one and just see what is a good fit.”
For now, sequins and the dance floor fit him just fine.
Follow Helene Elliott on Twitter @helenenothelen
Get our high school sports newsletter
Prep Rally is devoted to the SoCal high school sports experience, bringing you scores, stories and a behind-the-scenes look at what makes prep sports so popular.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
