A couple of news items on Karina Smirnoof and Apolo Ohno!! First, TV Yahoo caught up with Karina to ask her about she and Apolo’s Samba. She defends their chemistry for what judge Carrie Ann Inaba said they need to work on.

So now we know what Apolo Ohno sings to in the shower! The Olympic speed skater picked the Rick James classic “Give It To Me Baby” to show off his samba skills with Karina, but judge Carrie Ann Inaba told the dancing duo that they need to work on their chemistry.

While Karina admitted that chemistry can be hard to maintain constantly while dancing together day in and day out, she felt that on the stage, their chemistry was in tact. Mostly, though, she was blown away by how Apolo mastered the challenging moves: “The fact that Len gave us a 9.5, and he’s one of the toughest judges ever — he recognized the difficulty of the routine, the technique, and the execution. Apolo’s hips moved so much in this dance. I thought he had battery-operated equipment in there! Can we keep them?!”

As for the sex appeal that Len and Bruno felt? Karina said laughing, “It’s Rick James! This whole week Apolo was so funny — in the middle of dancing, he’d be like, ‘I wanna love you, baby.’” Sounds like the chemistry was bubbling over for these two!

I agree! I think Karina and Apolo’s chemistry is off the hook!

Karina also dished on last week’s Hip Hop Paso Doble. She also had a few words to say on the team Dance this week which you can read all about at the link. Below is what Karina said about their upcoming dance for Country week…

Next week is Country Week on “DWTS.” So will Karina and Apolo trade in their ’70s polyester for cowboy hats? Not exactly. They will be taking a more personal and touching country route with a Viennese Waltz.
“I love country. Half of my iPod music is country,” Karina said. “I knew the song I wanted to use. Once I presented the song to Apolo, he told me a personal story. Also, I lost my dear grandmother and grandfather to cancer, so our song is not going to be all laughter, but it’s going to be incredibly sentimental, romantic.”

So get ready, because the pint-size dancing pro can’t wait until next week: “The best thing for me is to have a song and a dance that I actually love. The creative process is so much sweeter.”

I love these two! I can’t wait to see what they’ll bring to the table again.

Secondly, below the pair are interviewed by Young Hollywood. Karina explains what it’s like have an Olympian and her first athlete as a partner. Apolo explains what the differences are like between training for dancing and training for a marathon. They also have some mutual friends and get their Gangnam groove on at the end. Too fun!

Thanks to Court for the help with this post! xxx