Junior Arike Ogunbowale, a guard on Notre Dame’s women’s basketball team, will compete on the 26th season of ABC’s dance competition show “Dancing with the Stars,” ABC announced Friday. Ogunbowale, who received national attention after securing the women's basketball program's first national championship since 2001 with two game-winning buzzer-beaters in the women’s NCAA basketball tournament, will be joined by other celebrity athletes on the show.
“The competition for the Mirror Ball trophy in the upcoming season of ‘Dancing With the Stars’ is sure to be fierce — as the season 26 cast features an all-star lineup of Olympic and professional athletes,” the ABC report said.
In addition to Ogunbowale, other stars include NBA Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Washington Redskins’ cornerback Josh Norman and several former Olympians, including figure skaters Tonya Harding and Adam Rippon and snowboarder Jamie Anderson, the report said. Each celebrity was partnered with a professional dancer and Ogunbowale's is Gleb Savchenko, a Russian dancer and choreographer who is a veteran of the show. The new season will premiere on April 30.
According to the report, Ogunbowale will train for the show at Notre Dame while she finishes her classes for the year.
"I have a lot of stuff going on with school. I still haven’t caught up from the Final Four," Ogunbowale told ABC. "But we’re definitely going to have time to do it."
