IndyCar racer James Hinchcliffe is a way better dancer than I ever thought he’d be on Dancing With The Stars, and part of that reason has to be that his partner is Sharna Burgess. She’s one of my favorites on Dancing With The Stars, so when it was revealed in Week 8 that she had injured her knee and couldn’t perform, I was seriously bummed. Unfortunately, Sharna is still injured on Dancing With The Stars , and in Week 9, she chose to play it safe to protect her injured knee.
As shown in the pre-dance tape, Sharna was icing and stimulating and acupuncturing up a storm, and even though her doctor cleared her on Friday for Monday’s show, she was still hesitant to perform. James totally got it – one little move and her knee would have been toast again. Even though Sharna wanted to be there for James, she opted to wait another week to see how she feels. Personally, I think it’s the right choice — James is good enough that he needs her coaching and choreography and not much else, so even though its hard to wait, being healthy is the most important part.
I really think that James and Sharna have a shot at winning this thing — he’s been the dark horse of Dancing With The Stars pretty much the whole time, and he’s so consistent. He messed up a little in Week 9 and still earned near-perfect scores. My prediction is that Laurie Hernandez and James will be duking it out in the finals, which are mere weeks away.
Images: Eric McCandless/ABC
