J.R. Martinez Takes Home DWTS Trophy

By Christine Thomasos, Christian Post Reporter Wednesday, November 23, 2011

The Dancing With the Stars competition came to a conclusion on Tuesday night, with J.R. Martinez and his professional dance partner Karina Smirnoff crowned as the winner.

In the last minutes of the season 13 show, the war veteran was announced as the winner in the last minutes of the show. He came in first place, with Rob Kardashian second and Ricki Lake third.

He thanked the fans of the show for their support.

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"Thank you, America, for believing in us," Martinez said.

Martinez spoke to reporters after the show about what the journey meant to him.

“We’ve been on an amazing journey over the past three months,” Martinez said. “The fact that we've been able to create a lot of magical moments on the show and to top it off with this is amazing.”

The war veteran, whose face was burned while serving in Iraq in 2003, said he was most happy that Smirnoff was able to take home the trophy for the first time.

“My friend she deserves it. She’s an amazing dancer and she should be in that category with the elite when it comes to this show and hold her own trophy up,” Martinez said after the show. “The fact that I was able to be a part of the journey I'm excited about that.”

Smirnoff seemed equally excited, and said she would take her trophy to her dance studio.

“I have a space with spotlights and I'm going to polish it every morning,” she said with a smile.

Martinez was a bit less subtle with the plans for his trophy.

“I’m going to put mine in bed and tuck it in and it’s going to roll around with me,” he said. “After that once we've grown apart I’m going to glue it on the front of my car and I can have my own parade."