Free Preview: Athletes - Karina Smirnoff
Karina Smirnoff is about to have a perfect moment. A six-time U.S. world ballroom-dancing champion and professional dancer-starlet on one of the most popular shows on TV, Dancing with the Stars, she will have her moment not on camera nor even on a stage. She’s sitting in an upscale pizza place outside Los Angeles, talking about Jennifer Lopez—whom she coached for the 2004 flick Shall We Dance?—when from out of nowhere, who should appear? “Karina!” says J. Lo, sidling up in a pair of beautiful booty-hugging blue jeans. “Jennifer!” Karina responds. “I was just talking about you!” Karina stands, and heads turn as the two stunners give each other a nice…long… squeeze. For the next five minutes, La Lopez gushes about Karina, then bids her adieu with a kiss. Eyes welling, Karina smiles. “That,” she says, “was a perfect moment.” Karina’s day has come. The tautly woven performer is shaking her moneymaker these days—designing shoes for Bearpaw, promoting her new fitness DVD, Shape Up With Karina Smirnoff, and her makeup line with Girlactik Beauty. She also just opened her first dance studio. With rows of trophies from international competitions, she’s more highly decorated than General Patton. “There’s no luck,” says Karina. “There’s only opportunity and preparation. I’ve worked my butt off.” Has she ever. Smirnoff was born 33 years ago in what is now Kharkiv, Ukraine to a Jewish Greek dad and a Russian mother. “Couldn’t get a feistier combination than that, could you?” she laughs. As...
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