Is Sam Champion Still on 'Dancing With the Stars'? He Opened Up About His Health

When audiences watch episodes of Dancing With the Stars, the first thought that comes to mind is how incredibly talented all of the contestants are. Thoughts about how difficult the dance moves are usually don’t come to mind right away.

For Sam Champion, his time on Dancing With the Stars has been a lot more challenging for him than he probably expected. It turns out that competing on the showed took a toll on him physically … and he wasn’t quite prepared. Is he still part of the hit show? Here's what fans of the reality TV dance show should know.

On Oct. 3, 2022, Sam opened up about his current health conditions before Monday night's Dancing With the Stars episode premiered. He hopped on an Instagram Live stream on his IG page to let his fans know that he’s been dealing with tons of pain in his legs recently.

During the stream, he said, "Physically, I wasn’t ready for any of this kind of activity. My body had never been pushed in the way dancers pushed their bodies."

He continued, “It’s hard, and my body really is not conditioned to try this yet. So, I had a lot of nerve pain yesterday and the day before. Had a lot of pain in my left leg. And that was kind of a brutal night to get through last night. That’s the first time that physically I felt beat up. There’s a lot of stretching, a lot of all of that happens. But boy, that was a tough night."

He did also note that his legs are feeling better thanks to the medical connections his dancing partner, Cheryl Burke, was able to introduce him to. As of now, despite Sam’s physical struggles, he was still able to survive on to the third week of competition. Ultimately, fans of Dancing With the Stars can expect to see him in next week's episode.

When celebrities are invited to perform on Dancing With the Stars, it gives them a chance to show off their dancing skills in a way the world has never seen before. Sam is mainly known as an American weather anchor who’s been part of the ABC network for more than 25 years.

In fact, he’s so popular with viewers that he has more than 159,000 followers on Instagram. His time on Dancing With the Stars is certainly shedding a different light on him for his fans. According to Gold Derby, he and other contestants from the show paid tribute to James Bond in the most recent episode.

Sam admitted that samba dancing was the hardest dance of all for him to learn, but he still did his best to pull through and impress the judges in a fun and witty way.