The opening night of the special all-athletes Dancing With the Stars season was all about the Olympic figure skaters.
It’s already clear close friends Adam Rippon and Mirai Nagasu should go to the finals of this truncated four-week competition.
And Tonya Harding should just go away.
But that will not happen yet. With two of the 10 stars — Olympic snowboarder Jamie Anderson and former major-league baseball player Johnny Damon — being sent home in a first-ever opening-night double elimination, Harding scored two 8s and a 7 for an easy foxtrot. Allison Janney, who won an Oscar for portraying Harding's mother in the recent film of her life, was in the audience cheering while Harding, 47, cried when the judges complimented her.
“Objectively, it was not bad,” said Shauna Fuhs, the pom squad coach at Gaithersburg (Md.) High, who has been scoring every dancer for nine seasons. “Overly dramatic. She won’t do well with fast-paced routines. I don’t think she’s in good enough shape.”