Over the course of Dancing With the Stars‘ incredibly long run, the show has seen all different types of celebrities grace their ballroom. From chefs to reality stars to actors and athletes, the dance competition show has been host to many. The show has had a bunch of Olympians over the years, as well, and some fans may have forgotten a lot of them.
Let’s take a trip down memory lane and find out which Olympians decided to test out their skills on the dance floor and how they ranked on the show as far as what the judges and viewers thought. Some Olympians won the season they were on, but others fell a bit short of the coveted mirrorball trophy. Nevertheless, Olympians have a history of scoring well on the show and often go far in the competition. Let’s find out who they are.
Updated September 2024: This article has been updated to reflect the most recent information regarding Olympians who have participated on “Dancing with the Stars.” As Season 33 begins on September 17, the newest Olympians to join the list soon include: Ilona Maher and Stephen Nedoroscik.
9 Dancing With The Stars: Simone Biles
Simone Biles was on Season 24 of Dancing with the Stars
Simone Biles, the multiple gold-medal-winning gymnast from the 2016, 2020, and 2024 Summer Olympics, became famous for telling Dancing With the Stars host, Tom Bergeron, that “smiles don’t win gold medals,” when she was criticized for not smiling during her dance performances on the show.
Simone ended up falling short of competing in the finals with her dance partner, Sasha Farber, but managed to come in fourth place, which is nothing to sneeze at.
8 Dancing With The Stars: Adam Rippon
Adam Rippon was on Season 26 of Dancing with the Stars
Adam Rippon was on the athletes-only season of Dancing With the Stars, and ended up winning with his dance partner on the show, Jenna Johnson. The season was a short one and only ran for four episodes, but Adam was still a champion, and had a connection with his partner, Jenna.
“I’m not a scientist, but we’ve got chemistry.”
The two clearly had a great bond and Jenna ended up asking Adam to be a bridesman in her wedding.
7 Dancing With The Stars: Apolo Ohno
Apolo Ono was on Season 4 and Season 15 of Dancing with the Stars
Apolo Ohno is known for speed skating in the Winter Olympics. He was partnered with Julianne Hough during Season 4. This was Julianne’s first season on the show, and the pair ended up winning the season.
Apolo actually returned for the all-star season in Season 15 and placed fifth that time. Julianne admitted in a package on the show that when they first started training together, she didn’t think they would make it that far. But they ended up surprising each other by winning the whole season!
6 Dancing With The Stars: Nastia Liukin
Nastia Liukin was on Season 20 of Dancing with the Stars
Nastia Liukin ended up partnering with Derek Hough while he was working in New York doing the city’s Spring Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall. So the two had to travel a lot back and forth in order to rehearse together for the show during the week and then be in Los Angeles for the live show on Monday nights.
Derek never shies away from a challenge. However, he ended up getting injured during the season and had Sasha Farber fill in for him while he recovered.
Nastia ended up being eliminated in the semi-finals and came in fourth place.
5 Dancing With The Stars: Laurie Hernandez
Laurie Hernandez was on Season 23 of Dancing with the Stars
Laurie Hernandez was partnered with Val Chmerkovskiy, and the two ended up winning the season they competed on.
Laurie was a front-runner from the start, with her incredible dancing ability and the fact that she is so darn adorable and likable definitely won her the fan votes.
Val was very vocal on the show about how much he enjoyed working with Laurie and how he loved being a mentor and sort of an older brother-type role model for her.
4 Dancing With The Stars: Aly Raisman
Aly Raisman was on Season 16 of Dancing with the Stars
Long before Aly Raisman became an advocate for survivors of sexual abuse in the sport of gymnastics, she was partnered with Mark Ballas for her season on Dancing With the Stars. Aly ended up coming in fourth place but did get to compete in the finals, as that season they had the top four contestants compete.
Aly received perfect scores for both her Rumba and her Freestyle.
Aly made it to the 2016 Olympics several years after her appearance on the dance competition show, and Mark was so proud of her.
“I teared up watching her finish her floor routine last night.”
Mark went on to say, “I got to experience this girl’s tremendous hard work and dedication first hand.”
3 Dancing With The Stars: Johnny Weir
Johnny Weir was on Season 29 of Dancing with the Stars
Johnny Weir was partnered with Britt Stewart on the show, and the two have remained besties ever since.
Johnny watches every season and encourages his followers to vote for her and the partner she is dancing with.
Johnny placed sixth during his season but was nearly eliminated earlier due to a less-than-stellar performance one night. The week prior to that low score, he had the top score of the night. Needless to say, the competition was a bit stressful for Johnny at times, as he revealed in an Instagram post after almost being eliminated.
2 Dancing With The Stars: Shawn Johnson
Shawn Johnson was on Season 8 and Season 15 of Dancing with the Stars
Olympian Shawn Johnson competed twice on Dancing With the Stars. The first time she competed with Mark Ballas in Season 8, which she ended up winning. The second time was during Season 15, an all-star season with Derek Hough. She came in second place that time.
Shawn is known for competing in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. On Johnson’s YouTube channel, she watched some of her old dances from the show with her husband and she stated that she loved every second of the first season she was on Dancing With the Stars, but she felt a lot more confident in who she was the second time she was on the show.
1 Dancing With The Stars: Sunisa Lee
Sunisa Lee was on Season 30 of Dancing with the Stars
Suni Lee, an Olympic gold medalist from Tokyo in 2021, competed on Dancing With The Stars almost immediately after the Olympics and came in fifth place in the competition despite consistently receiving great scores.
At the time, Suni was also taking online classes, as she had recently enrolled at Auburn University, and was training for gymnastics in Los Angeles while competing on the show.
Suni clearly enjoys being super busy as she hadn’t had much of a break after the Olympics. Fans of Dancing With the Stars also very clearly remember the time Lee got sick while competing on the show and had to go throw up after one of her performances.
