Amazing Feets

Olympic speedskater Apolo Ohno tears it up on Dancing with the Stars

APOLO OHNO had a moment of dread in his first episode of Dancing with the Stars . The speedskater had arrived on the L.A. set only a week after the world short track championships in Milan , where he had won a gold and three bronzes. Feeling unprepared, he danced the cha-cha with partner Julianne Hough and scored a disappointing 21 out of 30. He feared he was going to be knocked off by the likes of Billy Ray Cyrus and the guy who played Cliff on Cheers. "I'm an Olympic athlete," he says. "I don't want to be eliminated first."

The competitor inside awakened, Ohno and Hough (right) trained 12 to 14 hours per day for the 10 weeks of the show. They scored the season's first perfect 30 with a samba in Week 5 and matched it with an aggressive pasodoble in Week 10. "That was the first time I felt like I was dancing," he says. In the finale, his hip-hop number topped the dances of the other remaining competitors, boxer Laila Ali and 'N Sync member Joey Fatone. Ohno , 25, is the show's second consecutive athlete-winner, following Emmitt Smith . The two-time Olympian says his speedskating skills didn't help on the dance floor. "I was pretty uncomfortable," he says. "I was doing a lot of movement that, as an athlete, I wasn't used to." His mental game, though, was essential. "That's why some athletes have done well," he says. "We know what it takes to work hard."