As the Dancing with the Stars season gets closer to the finale, we at WotNE thought now was a good time to highlight some female athletes from the Northeast who have been on the competition show.
Aly Raisman
Aly Raisman is a retired American gymnast from Needham, Massachusetts. She is best known as the captain of the U.S. women’s gymnastics teams that won gold at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics. In 2012, she earned three medals: team gold, individual gold on floor exercise and bronze on balance beam. Four years later in Rio, she added another team gold, an individual silver in the all-around and a silver on floor exercise.
Raisman competed on Season 16 of Dancing with the Stars in 2013, shortly after her success at the 2012 London Olympics. She was paired with Mark Ballas.
Her routines often highlighted her strength and poise, with standout performances, including her lively jive and emotional contemporary dance. Raisman consistently earned high scores and became one of the season’s fan favorites.
She and Ballas made it all the way to the finals, ultimately finishing in fourth place. The experience allowed Raisman to show a more expressive side of herself and helped her transition from Olympic gymnast to a broader public figure.
Beyond her competitive achievements, Raisman became a prominent advocate for survivors of sexual abuse, speaking out courageously against former team doctor Larry Nassar and championing athlete safety and mental health.
Nancy Kerrigan
Nancy Kerrigan is an American figure skater best known for her success in the early 1990s and for her involvement in one of the sport’s most infamous incidents. She won a bronze medal at the 1992 Winter Olympics and a silver medal at the 1994 Winter Olympics, becoming one of the top skaters of her era.
Her career was dramatically interrupted in 1994, when she was attacked at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in a plot orchestrated by associates of rival skater Tonya Harding. Kerrigan recovered quickly and went on to skate impressively at the Lillehammer Olympics just weeks later.
After retiring from competitive skating, she performed in ice shows, made television appearances and became a commentator and public speaker.
One of those shows was Dancing with the Stars, in which she competed in season 24 and was partnered with Artem Chigvintsev.
Her performances included a mix of ballroom and Latin dances, such as the foxtrot, samba and rumba, often earning solid scores from the judges. Despite her strong technique, she was eliminated in Week 7, finishing in the middle of the pack.
After her elimination, Kerrigan said she valued the experience for pushing her outside her comfort zone and allowing her to connect with audiences in a new way beyond her skating career.
Victoria Arlen
Victoria Arlen is an American television personality, Paralympic gold medalist, author and motivational speaker. Arlen is from Exeter, New Hampshire and faced a rare autoimmune disorder at 11 years old that left her in a vegetative state for nearly four years. Defying the odds, she regained consciousness in 2010 and began rebuilding her life.
Despite being paralyzed from the waist down, Victoria returned to competitive swimming and represented the United States at the 2012 London Paralympic Games, where she won one gold and three silver medals. Refusing to accept limitations, she later learned to walk again in 2016 after years of intense therapy.
That same year, she joined ESPN as an on-air personality, appearing on SportsCenter, X Games and Special Olympics coverage.
In 2017, Victoria Arlen took on a new challenge as a contestant on Season 25 of Dancing with the Stars, partnered with professional dancer Val Chmerkovskiy. Having only recently regained the ability to walk after nearly a decade in a wheelchair, her participation was both courageous and groundbreaking. Throughout the competition, she impressed audiences and judges with her strength, grace and determination, performing routines that showcased not only her physical progress, but her joyful spirit. Victoria and Val reached the semifinals.
Today, Victoria continues her work as a broadcaster, advocate and speaker, inspiring millions with her message of hope and perseverance.
Ilona Maher
Ilona Maher is from Burlington, Vermont and is one of the biggest names in U.S. women’s rugby. She grew up playing several sports before discovering rugby at 17. After starting at Norwich University, she transferred to Quinnipiac, where she led the Bobcats to three straight National Intercollegiate Rugby Association titles and won the 2017 MA Sorensen Award as the nation’s top collegiate player.
Maher made her international debut for the U.S. Women’s Sevens team in 2018 and quickly became a core player. She represented Team USA at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and helped the squad win a historic bronze medal at the 2024 Paris Games, the first Olympic medal ever for U.S. women’s rugby sevens.
In addition to her sevens success, Maher debuted with the 15-a-side Eagles in 2021 and signed with England’s Bristol Bears in 2025 to further develop her 15s game ahead of the Women’s Rugby World Cup.
Off the field, Maher has become a social-media powerhouse known for promoting body positivity, confidence and women’s sports. She’s partnered with major brands, appeared in Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit issue and competed on Dancing with the Stars in 2024.
Ilona Maher was the first rugby player ever to compete on Dancing with the Stars in Season 33 and was paired with Alan Bersten. She quickly became a fan favorite for her confidence, humor and message about body positivity.
Maher’s debut Cha-Cha to “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!” by Shania Twain scored an 18/30 and set the tone for her journey: powerful, athletic and full of energy. Throughout the season, she used her platform to celebrate strength and femininity, saying dance made her feel “beautiful in a new way.” On “Disney Night,” she performed as Luisa from Encanto, perfectly capturing the character’s mix of toughness and heart.
Behind the scenes, Maher was open about her struggles, including a panic attack before her first live show and how dance training affected her rugby strength. Still, her determination and authenticity resonated with viewers and judges alike.
She and Bersten reached the finale, finishing as runners-up. Beyond her scores, Maher’s time on DWTS broke stereotypes about what a dancer’s body should look like and inspired fans by proving that strong, athletic women can also be graceful and glamorous. Maher has emerged as both a trailblazer for U.S. rugby and a role model redefining what it means to be a strong, visible female athlete.