Maksim Chmerkovskiy
Born on January 17th, 1980, Maksim Chmerkovskiy spend his early childhood years in his native town of Odessa, Ukraine. When he was four years old, his parents enrolled him in dance classes, and he quickly became one of the leading figures in junior ballroom dancing.
As a teenager, Chmerkovskiy was not thrilled about dancing, and preferred other sports such as basketball, soccer, and baseball, however he was so highly trained even at such a young age that he refused to give up. Unfortunately, it was also during his teen years that Chmerkovskiy fell victim to a skiing accident that left him bedridden for months, without hope of ever walking properly again. Doctors were convinced that he would walk with a limp for the rest of his life, due to a metal rod that had to be inserted in order to correct the bones and ensure they set properly.
After numerous surgeries and hundreds of physical therapy sessions, Chmerkovskiy refused to accept the doctors’ assertion that he would never walk correctly again, let alone be able to dance, and so he continued his therapy. He was determined to dance again.
In only a few months’ time, Chmerkovskiy was running and dancing, and was able to enter dance competitions. For his first return to competitive dance, Chmerkovskiy invited the doctor that had worked on his leg to come to the competition, just to prove to the doctor that he was wrong.
It was not long after Chmerkovskiy’s return to dance that his parents decided to move to America, in order to give their children more opportunities for their lives. For years, the family struggled with finances and language barriers, but in due time, Chmerkovskiy was able to learn English well enough to open a dance studio with his family, called the Rising Stars Dance Academy.
Chmerkovskiy was also able to enter many professional competitions, and has been ranked second in the United States for Latin Ballroom dance, and seventh overall in the world. In order to give back to the country that provided opportunities for him and his family, Chmerkovskiy developed and now directs “Dance Team USA”, a non-profit, educational organization that seeks to recruit and train future athletes for DanceSport, the official name for ballroom dancing in the United States.
In 2007, Chmerkovskiy returned for his third stint on the fourth season of the reality show Dancing with the Stars, paired with celebrity dancer Laila Ali.
Read these other great entries