Xochitl Gomez injured on “Dancing With the Stars” but powers through to dance marathon
If there's anything Xochitl Gomez has learned from playing a superhero, it's how to power through an injury.
On the Halloween episode of Dancing With the Stars, Gomez appeared to hurt herself at the conclusion of her contemporary number to "Game of Survival" by Ruelle. After striking a final pose with partner Val Chmerkovskiy, the camera cut away and viewers could hear someone say "Uh-oh."
When the camera panned back to Gomez and Chmerkovskiy, he was carrying her off the platform down to the judges' table. She hovered on one leg, leaning on Chmerkovskiy while cohost Alfonso Ribeiro also offered to help hold her up.
Xochitl Gomez/ Instagram
The judges repeatedly asked her if she was okay, but Gomez insisted she was. Cohost Julianne Hough gracefully bypassed the issue, explaining how she was familiar with the desire to push through the incident from her own days a professional dancer on the show.
Gomez later explained her mysterious injury in her Instagram story, writing in a caption that she got "scraped up climbing the altar." She appeared in a video saying, "I'm okay, y'all. We good."
The video also showcased a make-up artist disguising a bandage wrapped around Gomez's knee with foundation matching Gomez's skin tone. "They fixed me up and we'll see you for the dance marathon," her caption finished, while she proclaimed "Dance Marathon, call me!" to the camera.
Gomez and Chmerkovskiy still managed to top the leader board with their number despite the injury. They nabbed a total score of 37 out of 40 from the three core judges and guest judge Niecy Nash-Betts. The show's main judges each gave them a nine, while Nash-Betts bestowed upon them a perfect score of 10.
ABC/ Disney Val Chmerkovskiy and Xochitl Gomez on 'Dancing With the Stars'
Later, in the dance marathon, Gomez appeared to be fine. She was all smiles with Chmerkovskiy and even doing dance moves that involved going down on one knee and doing spins across the floor. They made it to to the top four, at which point the dance style shifted from the Hustle to the Charleston, which involves a lot of knee movement and fancy footwork.
In the end, Gomez and Chmerkovskiy won the marathon, coming in just ahead of Ariana Madix and Pasha Pashkov. This earned them a total of five bonus points, bringing their total to 42. Julianne Hough ended the night drenching them in red confetti a la horror classic Carrie.
Despite the fact that Gomez is only 17, she has been a frontrunner from the beginning of season 32, consistently earning scores near the top of the leaderboard. She is best known to audiences as America Chavez in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Dancing With the Stars airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC and Disney+ and streams the following day on Hulu.
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