Becoming Dancing With the Stars‘ latest champion is an accomplishment that hasn’t yet sunk in for Xochitl Gomez.
“It feels crazy,” the 17-year-old Marvel star exclusively told Us Weekly after taking home the inaugural Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy with partner Val Chmerkovskiy on Tuesday, December 5. “I think it’s going to take me a minute to fully register. I mean, even when I found out I was a superhero, I was like, ‘What? Are you for real?’ It took me, like, a week.”
Gomez and Chmerkovskiy, 37, earned perfect scores from the judges for their foxtrot and freestyle finale routines. The couple later emerged victorious after landing in the top two alongside Jason Mraz and Daniella Karagach. Ariana Madix and Pasha Pashkov, meanwhile, finished the season in third place followed by Charity Lawson and Artem Chigvintsev in fourth and Alyson Hannigan and Sasha Farber in fifth.
“I can’t believe we did that,” Gomez told Us of her and Chmerkovskiy’s victory. “I was like, ‘[We’ll make it to] week five, maybe. Yeah!’ And then by the time we got [to week five], I was like, ‘OK, oop, we’re here, and maybe, we might stay, question mark?’”
Chmerkovskiy added: “There’s so many elements. There’s so many variables that you don’t have control over. So, we just really just focused on squeezing every ounce of fun and joy out of it.”
Gomez revealed that she went into the season with a game plan after producers unintentionally spilled clues about each week’s theme and dance styles. “I figured out all my songs and what I wanted to do and what style, and I just had a whole plan,” she shared. “And I was like, ‘OK, if it goes like this, maybe, maybe I can get there.’ And so, it’s been just crazy, the fact that from so long ago, I have that whole PDF that I made and it’s like, we did it all.”
Not to mention, she also did her research on Chmerkovskiy. “I knew everything about him,” Gomez joked. “I knew all the packages from each season. It also allowed me to make a lot of jokes.”
Chmerkovskiy credits his partner’s humor and laughter with helping them win it all. “That’s why Alyson’s in the finals, that’s why Xochitl is taking [home] the mirror ball, because it’s got to be rooted in fun,” he told Us. “And that’s where the chemistry comes from, that’s where the camaraderie comes from, and we just had a blast. That’s why this is bittersweet, because now it’s officially over.”
Gomez is set to make a special appearance on the DWTS Live Tour in 2024 with Lawson, 27, and fellow season 32 competitor Harry Jowsey. For now, she and Chmerkovskiy plan on celebrating their win with some delicious food.
“The day after our Good Morning America [cast reveal] — we had gone to New York and we were roaming around and we got bagels and we were like, ‘When we come back, GMA, New York, if we win, we’ll get bagels,” Gomez shared.
With reporting by Hannah Kahn
