County native Leskinen a ‘Superstar’
In more than half of the challenges they were presented during the course of “The Superstars,” freestyle skier and Fayette County native Kristi Leskinen and her partner, Maksim Chmerkovskiy, came in first. So it was no surprise to those who watched the show that the duo, despite never having to compete in the obstacle course that determined the winner, blew through it, and were crowned champions of the six-episode series on ABC. On Thursday, Leskinen said she was excited about the win, and thankful for the experience.
Filmed over 21/2 weeks, the show paired an athlete with a celebrity. The pair competed in various athletic challenges, and the bottom teams then headed to an obstacle course to determine who would be eliminated.
Throughout the series, Leskinen and Chmerkovskiy, one of the professional dancers on “Dancing With The Stars,” managed to avoid having to run the gauntlet. On Tuesday’s finale, however, the only way to win was to beat skier Bode Miller and celebrity Paige Hemmis in a best of three wins through the course.
Included in it were a wall climb, hurdles and the rope net that gave so many competitors trouble.
It was, unfortunately, a finale that anyone in the local viewing area missed. After Leskinen and Chmerkovskiy made it to the finals, but before they ran the obstacle course, WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh cut to live coverage a man who went on deadly rampage at an Allegheny County health center.
Leskinen said her mother and her father were having parties for the finale, and ultimately had to tell their guests that she and Chmerkovskiy were victorious, as news of the Collier Township shooting unfolded.
“This was the one place in the county where people really wanted to watch, and it was the one place they couldn’t watch,” Leskinen said.
The full finale, however, is online at www.abc.com.
While going into the obstacle course was “nerve wracking,” having never done it before, Leskinen said that the show’s producers did let her and Chmerkovskiy see it before they had to take their turn.
“We made sure to pay close attention when people would talk about the course,” she said. “The other contestants always had stories, and we always paid close attention, so we knew the ropes were the things to look out for, and we knew we had to keep our feet out of them,” she said.
Nonetheless, Leskinen said she got a little tangled on them her first time through. The second time, however, she breezed through them.
She listed among her favorites the water-based events like swimming, kayaking and jet skiing. The biggest challenge, she said, was archery, which almost none of the contestants had experience with.
But even in the archery challenge, Leskinen and Chmerkovskiy tied for first place.
Leskinen said she and her partner were excited to heading into the finals, and hoped that they would be able to finish as strong as they’d gone throughout the competition.
She said she’s found that people recognize her more because of the show.
“Skiers don’t get a lot of publicity,” she said.
For now, Leskinen said she’s focusing on her skiing. On Thursday, she was in Portland to train and for a magazine photo shoot. Then, she said, it’s off to New Zealand to train for ski season.