INQUISITR.COM / Entertainment

‘Dancing With the Stars’ Pros Reveal Sports Stars They Want To Be Paired With For All-Athletes Season

By Victoria Miller
Published on: 23:23 PST, Apr 4, 2018

Dancing With the Stars’ all-athletes edition is set to debut later this month, and spoilers for the season are leaking out. While the full cast reveal won’t come until late next week, confirmed Dancing with the Stars: Athletes pro dancer Gleb Savchenko and several other longtime pros are teasing the type of sports legends they’d like to be paired with for the show’s first-ever themed season.

Savchenko, who previously confirmed to Entertainment Tonight that he will be competing on the Athletes season, told ET he would like to be paired with a figure skater for the upcoming season of the ABC celebrity ballroom competition.

“I would love to have as a partner someone who has done something connected to music,” the DWTS pro said. “Probably a figure skater. Someone young, someone with energy. And just someone really who wants to win. I need a mirrorball.”

Witney Carson, who has also confirmed she will make a return to DWTS, name-checked Olympic figure skaters Adam Rippon and Nathan Chen, while longtime DWTS pro Artem Chigvintsev also said competing with a skater “would be awesome.”

Artem has not been confirmed as a Dancing With the Stars: Athletes pro dancer, but ET reports that both he and fellow dancer Alan Bersten played coy when asked about their status for the upcoming season. In addition, both dancers appear to be planning their schedules around the show’s four-week competition timeframe. Of the upcoming all-athletes season, Chigvintsev did say: “I’m looking forward to it… just going to say that.”

Alan Bersten told ET he watched the winter Olympics to scout the possible Dancing with the Stars: Athletes talent. Bersten’s wish list includes snowboarder Chloe Kim or any ice skater.

“I watched the Olympics this season, just because I was like, ‘A lot of these people might be on the show,'” the DWTS dancer explained. “Chloe Kim looks awesome, and she has a really good personality — a really good energy, good spirit, so she’d be really cool. And any ice skater would be incredible. The Shibutanis [Alex and Maia] were amazing. That would be awesome.”

Artem Chigvintsev and Witney Carson also added pro basketball stars to their wish lists, with Carson saying LeBron James would be at the top of her DWTS dream partner list, while Sharna Burgess called out NBA great Kobe Bryant, a pal of her most recent DWTS partner, Derek Fisher.

Burgess isn’t confirmed for the DWTS: Athletes season, but she also added that she would love to dance with an NFL star like Colin Kaepernick or Julian Edelman from the Patriots “because I may or may not have a little crush on him.”

Us Weekly recently leaked the names of three Dancing with the Stars athletes. According to the celebrity site, disgraced Olympic skater Tonya Harding has officially joined Season 26 of the show. Harding will reportedly compete against Olympic figure skater Adam Rippon and Olympic snowboarder Jamie Anderson on Dancing With the Stars: Athletes.

The full Dancing With the Stars: Athletes cast announcement will be revealed Friday, April 13 on Good Morning America. You can see a promo below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IivZ5i6DORc

Dancing with the Stars returns with an all-athletes season April 30 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

Share this article: ‘Dancing With the Stars’ Pros Reveal Sports Stars They Want To Be Paired With For All-Athletes Season
tonya harding Dancing with the Stars
More from Inquisitr