‘Dancing With The Stars’ 2017: Simone Biles Favored To Win Mirrorball Trophy

Dancing with the Stars 2017 is almost underway, and that means it’s almost time for the new cast to lace up their dancing shoes and leave it all out there on the dance floor. While the heat has not yet been entirely extinguished from Laurie Hernandez’s well-earned win last season, fans of the long-running dance competition already have their sights set on the new blood coming into the studio, and social media is ripe with rumors, speculation, and predictions for Dancing with the Stars 2017.

As far as what fans can expect for the upcoming edition of Dancing with the Stars 2017, early predictions suggest that the trend of an Olympian winner just might continue with this upcoming season of Dancing with the Stars 2017, with Simone Biles earning the top billing in early predictions. As a kind of bonus for fans, the Olympic connection between last year’s winner Laurie Hernandez and this year’s hopeful, Simone Biles provides an interesting thread for fans to follow this season. This storyline, in particular, is one that is going to add even more intrigue to what is already expected to be an exciting season.

People has gone on to suggest what many fans of the show are already expecting — that Laurie Hernandez will be rooting for her fellow Olympian to take the coveted Mirrorball Trophy home. Laurie Hernandez even gave Simone Biles her lucky, silver-sequined tennis shoes for good measure. Of course, one could easily look at this as merely a nice gesture between fellow competitors, but, in a competition like Dancing with the Stars 2017 where the competition gets fiercer with each passing season, this gesture may give Simone Biles an extra edge as she heads into the season — and every little bit helps.

According to BookMaker, Simone Biles and her partner Sasha Farber are early front-runners to win Dancing with the Stars 2017 by a large margin, so, it may be on the other contestants and their partners to dethrone this early favorite once they hit the dance floor. Ultimately, it will be interesting to see if these early odds play out, or if someone else emerges to take the trophy.

#Sneakpeak @WitneyCarson and our talented #dancers taking a break. Only 9 days left! I wonder what #song we're dancing too? Hmm @DancingABC pic.twitter.com/8i1dbEOUOz

— Chris Kattan (@ChrisKattan) March 11, 2017

At the moment, the celebrity competitors and their professional partners are hard at work in rehearsal polishing those dancing skills before they take the next step to the big stage. Dancing with the Stars 2017 premieres live on March 20th, which leaves only a little over a week left to prepare for the bright lights and the big stage.

Someone else that also has a connection to last year’s winner, Laurie Hernandez, and knows a thing or two about winning, himself, is Valentin Chmerkovskiy, who is partnered this year with Fifth Harmony singer Nomani Kordei, as both have the dual task of juggling a rehearsal schedule and Nomani Kordei’s touring schedule. Still, another hot-button topic on fans’ minds is whether or not they will get to see Valentin Chmerkovskiy repeat as back-to-back champion in Dancing with the Stars 2017.

Speaking with US Weekly, Valentin Chmerkovskiy added the following.

“She’s got like, a 15-city Asian tour coming up. The first four weeks of the show, we’re going to be in Tokyo, Osaka, Shanghai, Malaysia, Singapore. I’ve had to travel before, but never to the other side of the world and come back for a live show. If there’s a flight delay and we miss Monday, we’re out of the show.

“I want to make her look her best. I want to embrace every single challenge, because if we conquer those challeith tinges, that’s going to bring us closer together and that’s going to get the fans behind her.”

Catch an all-new season of Dancing with the Stars when Season 24 premieres on March 20, only on ABC.

[Featured Image by Eamonn M. McCormack/Stringer/Getty Images]