Dancing with the Stars crowned Laurie Hernandez and her professional partner Val Chmerkovskiy its Season 23 champions on Tuesday night.

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The Olympic gold gymnast and Val were declared Dancing with the Stars' ballroom champions and won the coveted mirrorball trophy during Tuesday night's live two-hour finale broadcast on ABC.

"I just want to thank everyone for their support and riding along this crazy roller coaster of my life, and my goal is just to inspire others as I go on with my journey, and thanks for being there for me!" Laurie said following her victory announcement.

"Thank you so much," Val added. "To all the kids out there, you don't have to wait until you grow up to change the world. Be great; You're the future! Thank you so much."

Laurie and Val were revealed to be Dancing with the Stars winners based on the combination of judges' scores and home viewer votes they had received during this week's final performance and results shows. This marks Val's second DWTS win as a pro partner in the last four seasons. 

Professional race car driver James Hinchcliffe and partner Sharna Burgess finished the competition in second place. Dancing with the Stars host Tom Bergeron admitted, "Rarely have we had two more deserving couples" in the end of a season.

"It meant the world. I never would have thought at the end of this that, you know, Sharna and I would be standing up here finishing second in this competition," James said of his experience on the reality dancing competition.

"Congrats to Laurie and Val. They were tremendous from Day 1. And I'm just so proud of [Sharna] and all the hard work she put in to making me look like I knew how to dance. Thank to all the 'Team Stop and Go' supporters, my family, [my girlfriend Becky Dalton], and everybody. It's been a great time."

Since joining Dancing with the Stars back in Season 16, Sharna has finished in second place twice and third place one time.

Retired NFL wide receiver Calvin Johnson Jr. and partner Lindsay Arnold claimed third place. Lindsay has never managed to finish higher than third place in her four seasons as a pro on the show.

Dancing with the Stars judge Carrie Ann Inaba said of the finale couples, "I never saw three more worthy finalists, ever."

This season marked the first time in show history three athletes made it to the Final 3 together. Calvin was the most improved, James was the most surprising and Laurie was the most fierce.

Laurie and Val topped the combined two-night judges' leaderboard in first place this week after they received a total score of 120 out of 120 possible points for their three routines from Dancing with the Stars judges Carrie Ann Inaba, Julianne Hough, Len Goodman and Bruno Tonioli.

James and Sharna finished in second place with 117 total points, while Calvin and Lindsay took third on the combined leaderboard with 115 total points.

Tuesday night's Christmas-themed finale featured the Top 3 couples each reprising their favorite dance of the season and then performing one last quickly-rehearsed "24-hour Fusion Dance," which combined two different styles of ballroom dance into one complicated routine. The fusion challenge completed each couple's scores from the judges for the finals.

Laurie and Val took the stage with a foxtrot and Argentine tango routine that received a perfect score of 40 points from the judges.

James and Sharna also earned 40 points for their foxtrot-Viennese waltz fusion. Calvin and Lindsay performed a quickstep and jive fusion which added 40 points to their total as well.

During Monday night's broadcast, the Top 4 finalists -- which included country singer Jana Kramer and pro Gleb Savchenko -- and their respective partners danced in the following two rounds of competition: A "Redemption Routine," which was an improved encore performance of a previously-performed dance on the show, and the fan-favorite "Freestyle," which was a supersized routine with no rules or expectations.

For a more detailed description of each couple's scores and routines from Monday night's performance show, click here.
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

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