Sports
By Abby Knox, Newswire Intern
A Super Bowl champion, a National Basketball Association (NBA) champion and two Olympic medalist are now taking on a new challenge, dancing. Danny Amendola, Dwight Howard, Ilona Mahler and Stephen Nedoroscik can now add ballroom dancing to their resumes as they are currently on Dancing with the Stars (DWTS) season 33.
Danny Amendola is dancing alongside Witney Carson this season. Amendola spent 13 years in the NFL and won two Super Bowls with the New England Patriots.
Amendola was a wide receiver for 13 years for seven different teams during his time in the National Football League (NFL) best known for his time with the New England Patriots. Throughout his career, Amendola made 617 catches, covered a total of 6,212 yards and received 24 touchdowns during his 163 career games. Amendola also won two Super Bowl titles as a Patriot. After his retirement in 2022, Amendola took up a new position in the NFL as a coaching assistant and returners coach for the Las Vegas Raiders during the 2023 season.
More recently, Amendola finds himself exploring a new sport as he dances on DWTS with his professional partner Witney Carson.
“My joints are so much more sore. We’re playing (football) on grass, so it’s a little softer. The hardwood is, like, I’m icing up,” Amendola said to US Weekly. “I’m definitely feeling the age (38) at this point. But it’s fun to get out there, sweat and have fun.”
Dwight Howard is towering over his partner Daniella Karagrach on the dance floor. As a basketball player, his height was his strength, helping him to 14,627 rebounds in his career.
An unlikely candidate for the dance floor is 6’ 10” NBA champion Dwight Howard, who was the first overall pick by the Orlando Magic in the 2004 NBA draft. During his time with the Magic, Howard led the team to three division titles and one conference title. Howard went straight from high school to the NBA, where he was ranked as one of the highest-scoring rebounders and defensive players in NBA history.
With a total of 14,627 rebounds throughout his eighteen-season career, Howard averaged around 11.8 rebounds per game. Howard was also a part of Team USA during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, where the team won a gold medal.
Howard is stepping out of his comfort zone with DWTS, being the tallest dancer in the ballroom alongside his 5’3” professional partner Daniella Karagrach.
Ilona Maher is breaking gender stereotypes around ballroom dancing alongside her partner Alan Bersten. Maher has competed in two Olympic Games, and she also has a massive following on TikTok.
Maher is a rugby player who has competed in multiple high-level competitions, making her international debut for rugby at the 2018 Paris Sevens tournament. Maher competed in her first Olympics at the 2020 Tokyo Games, where the United States rugby sevens team finished sixth. During her time in Tokyo, she became TikTok famous for documenting her experience at the Olympics.
Maher also competed at the 2023 Pan American Games, where she won a gold medal before competing in the 2024 Paris Olympics with the U.S. Women’s Rugby Sevens team where they won a bronze medal. This was the first medal for the women’s rugby sevens team in U.S. history and the first U.S. rugby medal in over 100 years.
Stephen Nedoroscik is taking his glasses off to take to the dance floor with his partner Rylee Arnold. He is taking his skills from the pommel horse to help him learn the art of ballroom dancing.
Maher has become an early favorite for DWTS fans by challenging the gender roles that typically govern ballroom dancing alongside her partner Alan Bersten.
Nedoroscik, known by the internet as the “Pommel Horse Guy,” started his gymnastics career at the age of five and has since won numerous titles for pommel horse including at the NCAA National Championship in 2017 and at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championship in 2021. Most recently, Nedoroscik won two medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics. He was a key asset in the team all-round final to secure Team USA their bronze medal and also won bronze in the individual pommel horse.
Nedoroscik has taken to the dance floor alongside partner Rylee Arnold. Thanks to his black rimmed glasses, viewers around the world compared Nedoroscik to Clark Kent because when the glasses come off, Nedoroscik is in the zone.
After the first two weeks of DWTS, Amendola, Howard, Maher and Nedoroscik have been high performers. Having these star athletes on this show proves just how versatile they can be. Whether they are sinking a basket, scoring a touchdown, winning a medal, or learning choreography, these athletes can do it all.
