Dancing With the Stars - Do Athletes Have an Advantage?
Dancing with the Stars is a show where professional dancers and celebrities are teamed up and compete against each other week after week to become the winner of the season signifying that they are the best dancers.
The celebrities can be actors, actresses, singers, athletes or comedians. They can really be any person that is famous and has a following of any kind. Do the athletes have an advantage over the non athlete celebrities? There have been 6 seasons, let us take a look at the winners and their professions.
Celebrities on Dancing with the Stars that won and their Profession:
Season 1 - Kelly Monaco—Actress—Winner
Season 2 - Drew Lachey—Singer—Winner
Season 3 - Emmitt Smith—Retired NFL Running Back—Winner
Season 4 - Apolo Anton Ohno—Speed Skater—Winner
Season 5 - Helio Castroneves—Indy 500 Champion—Winner
Season 6 - Kristi Yamaguchi—Champion Skater—Winner
In the six years of Dancing with the Stars, there have been four athletes, one singer and one actress as winners. Therefore you can understand why certain people believe that the athletes have a distinct advantage over the other contestants on the show.
As for if athletes have an advantage over non-athletes on the show, how can that even be a possibility. The only way someone would have an advantage over another contestant, would be if they were more agile or had the ability to learn faster than their competitors. All of the contestants are learning new dances. All of the contestants start with the same score and have to win the vote of the public and the Dancing with the Stars judges. Sure, some people like to talk about well he has an advantage or she does because their experience. But let me ask you, take the winner in season 3, Emmitt Smith. He was a very famous running back in the NFL. He was one of the contestants that was an athlete but I ask you, how is being an athlete in the sport of football an advantage on the dance floor?
In football, you barrel through your opposite team as forcefully as you can. While on the dance floor you need to be graceful and agile. If anything, I would say his professional career as a football player gave him a disadvantage yet he still won the competition in season 3.
There are several factors that are more important than what type of a celebrity the contestants are. There is first and perhaps most importantly, who is the individual teamed with? What professional dancer was any given celebrity teamed with for the competition? If the match is a good one, the pair can go far. If, however, the match is less than perfect, that in itself could be the biggest disadvantage a celebrity could face during the whole season.
There is also the question of whether or not the celebrity is any good at dancing to begin with. If the celebrity is a good dancer, that is a big advantage in a competition like this. Likewise, if the individual does not dance,then they are at an extreme disadvantage over contestants that do dance and an even bigger disadvantage over the contestants that dance well.
No matter what profession any given celebrity has on Dancing with the Stars, they all begin the season with the same score and must learn the dances at the same time. I do not believe an athlete has any advantage over other contestants. What do you think?
Kathy is a guest writer at Reality-TV-Online. You can get the latest elimination results and news for Dancing With The Stars and many other reality tv shows.