Dancing With The Stars: Former Olympians Dorothy Hamill, Aly Raisman Join New Cast

It’s here folks, the single greatest moment of the year has come and gone as the new cast for Dancing With the Stars was officially announced Tuesday morning on Good Morning America. We already knew that Super Bowl champion Jacoby Jones would be competing but the question was would there be any other big name athletes joining the cast?

Not only did the folks at Dancing With the Stars get one former Olympian, they snagged themselves two of them and boxer.

Former Olympic gold medal gymnasts Dorothy Hamill and Aly Raisman were announced as cast members this morning, connecting over 30 years of Olympic history in one cast. Hamill became America’s sweetheart in 1976 when she won gold at the Innsbruck Games and Raisman became America’s sweetheart when she won gold in 2012 at the London Games.

Athletes have had great success on Dancing With the Stars since the show began back in 2005. Since then, athletes have won 7 of the 15 contests held with a former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader becoming an honorary eighth winner in that list. Of those winners, three have been former Olympians with gymnast Shawn Johnson saying she is more remembered by people for her victory on Dancing With the Stars than she is for winning gold back in 2008.

“The Olympic gymnastics competition was broadcast for just a few hours over the course of a few days during the Games,” Johnson said in her autobiography. “DWTS came on twice a week, several hours a week, for three months. It made sense that I was more readily identifiable as a dancer, but it seemed as if the biggest milestone of my life had been pushed away.”

Boxer Victor Ortiz was also named to the season 16 cast. The dance competition kicks off with the first episode of the new season airing March 18th on ABC.