Does Adam Rippon Have What It Takes to Win 'Dancing with the Stars?'

Get ready, Adam Rippon fans (and if you're not an Adam fan, maybe avoid the internet for the next few weeks?). Our favorite Olympic figure skater is making his debut on Dancing with the Stars, and we're about to see what he's really made of!

After winning hearts as the first openly-gay American athlete to compete at the Winter Olympics, taking on the Trump Administration and becoming a media sensation, Rippon is competing in the all-athletes edition of DWTS, along with his dance partner Jenna Johnson in her second season as a professional. He's up against fellow Olympic figure skaters Mirai Nagasu and Tonya Harding, luger Chris Mazdzer, snowboarder Jamie Anderson and NBA star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, just to name a few.

But will his skating ability and charisma translate to the dance floor, and are DWTS voters ready for him? We recently interviewed So You Think You Can Dance veteran Travis Wall about his friendship with Adam and their collaboration on Stars on Ice, and we asked both of them for their insights and predictions on the upcoming season.

Here are the highlights, including Adam's hopes for winning over Middle America and Travis' thoughts on whether we'll ever see a same-sex dancing pair on the show.

How will the athletes' skills translate to ballroom dancing?

Travis Wall: Athletes have an awareness of their bodies, an awareness of how to communicate their brain to their bones and how to move them. As far as counting goes, maybe not. Figure skaters know how to count, but when you take the skates off, sometimes it's kind of scary, and I know because I've worked with a couple of them.

Will Adam be able to keep up with Jenna as a dancing partner?

TW: Dancing with a partner, you have to play both sides. As energetic as you can be, you have to have a strong frame to be able to partner. And Jenna is a firecracker, she literally will be able to eat him alive — but I think there's going be moments when he's going to eat her alive! I cannot wait. When I heard those two got each other I was like "All right, it's on." I called him and was like "I'm coming in for the finale, I'm choreographing that routine, we're making this happen." They're already having so much fun together.

Adam Rippon: I love Jenna so much, and I need somebody that could potentially eat me alive, because I can eat my partners alive as well! We're a perfect match and she's honestly been such a dream to work with. When I was telling Travis I was thinking about doing the show, he was like "Oh my god, you’re going to want to dance with Jenna." I'm so glad that it ended up happening.

What are their chances to win the Mirror Ball Trophy this season?

TW: I think it's Adam's season to lose, but hopefully all of Adam's fans watch the show. I think what's going to help Adam is bringing in a new audience for DWTS. I have to be very honest. With DWTS, the audience is between 34 and 58 years old. Middle-aged women in America. That's who calls in votes, that's their target audience, and I don't necessarily know if Adam's the guy they're going to be voting for. [...] But obviously, I think Adam's going to be getting the highest scores each week.

AR: I have had so many people comment and tell me that they're going to watch and vote, which has been awesome. I think that for me to get the votes, I just need to go in and try to do my best, but more than anything, have a good time. I think Jenna is so funny and we get along so well, that I hope our personalities come across in all of our dances and we can get people excited about the show.

Will Adam be able to win over those older DWTS voters across America?

TW: This is the world we live in, you're not really sure until you try it! I think he's definitely someone [...] that they've never voted for before. That's going to be exciting.

AR: Of course! Why not! It's the perfect time. I don't think people would expect somebody like me to win over a lot of people at the Olympics, so DWTS is just the next challenge.

Will DWTS ever give us a same-sex dancing pair?

TW: I would only go on to be a pro on DWTS if I was in the first male-on-male couple to compete the entire season. I like dancing with men! In my dance company I dance with men all the time, and a lot of the shows that I do, I present a lot of gay storylines — but just because two men dance together, it doesn't have to be gay. I think that's going to change up the show.

I've kind of said it [to DWTS producers] in passing, joking. I've never touched that territory. I've gone on the show as a performer but never as a pro. I should have really thought about it, because then I should have pitched it for me and Adam! I'll just wait, and me and Gus [Kenworthy] can go on next year.

Season 26 of Dancing with the Stars premieres Monday, April 30 at 8/7c and will air for four weeks on ABC!