Apolo Anton Ohno turned 25 and shared a special birthday with his partner Julianne Hough as they danced the paso doble to win the latest Dancing with the Stars competition.
"I feel amazing," the Olympic speed skating gold medalist said after winning. "From day 1 I feel like everyone here has been champions."
"I'm so excited to see Apolo win," judge Carrie Ann Inaba told People Magazine after the finale. "He took it so seriously. He truly mastered the dances. He was the best technical dancer. Apolo and Julianne brought a whole new energy to the dance floor. You never quite knew what they were going to do."
Which also describes runner-up Joey Fatone - who was also prone to being inventive. He used a light saber for a "Star Wars" themed tango and wore breakaway clothes and a sparkly gold suit for his freestyle dance. He called the show "one of the best things I've ever done in my life."
Other than drawing out a 30-minute show into a 2-hour long epic, the Dancing with the Stars competition was exciting to watch, capped off by the closely fought final in its fourth season. Stars ranks as the second-most-popular series on U.S. television this season after American Idol.
