Karina Smirnoff Finally Wins After Ten Seasons on 'Dancing With the Stars' [PHOTOS]
Reality TV series Dancing with the Stars crowned war veteran J.R. Martinez and professional dancer Karina Smirnoff the winners of the thirteenth season late Tuesday.
Martinez has been called an All-American hero and was quick on his toes throughout the series. He was favored to win from the beginning due to his inspiring backstory, but he turned out to be one of the best dancers on the show as well. Martinez is an American actor and former U.S. Army soldier who suffered severe burns on over 40 percent of his body while serving in Iraw. Who is his dazzling dance partner, Karina Smirnoff?
Smirnoff has danced the night away on DWTS for ten of the thirteen series. She finished second in her DWTS debut with partner Mario Lopez during the second season of the show. In season three, she finished fifth with partner Billy Ray Cyrus and later danced with the actor and musician on Hannah Montana. Karina also danced on DWTS seasons five through nine and eleven through thirteen.
After ten runs on the show, she finally won the mirror ball trophy late Tuesday with J.R. Martinez.
Smirnoff has a long history with dancing. The 33-year old was born in Ukraine, but came to the U.S. with her family when she was 12-years old. She started taking ballet lessons when she was 5 and was first introduced to ballroom dancing when she was nine.
Prior to her time on DWTS, Smirnoff has an incredibly successful ballroom dancing career. She was crowned the U.S. National Champion five times, the World Trophy Champion and the Asian Open Champion. She is also a three-time champion at the US Open, a two-time champion at the Asian Open, five-time champion at the Dutch Open and five-time US National Professional Champion. Smirnoff has been ranked second in the world in competitive ballroom dancing.
The beautiful dancer was also featured in a PETA Anti-Fur ad where she posed naked. The ad reads: I'd rather dance naked than wear fur.
You have a choice as an individual, you have a choice in the press, in the world, whether to make a statement that you do support killing animals or make a statement when you don't. And you can still be as chic as you can possibly want to be, Karina said in a statement endorsing the PETA ad.
In addition to her anti-fur advertisement, Smirnoff also posed nude in the May 2011 issue of Playboy.
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