Victoria Arlen -- 8 things to know about the 'Dancing with the Stars' celebrity

Victoria Arlen is impressing Dancing with the Stars viewers with her ability to perform without having feeling in her legs.


Victoria is a 23-year-old TV personality on ESPN and former Paralympic swimmer.

For Season 25 of Dancing with the Stars, Victoria is paired with Val Chmerkovskiy, and their chemistry is beautiful.

During the last DWTS performance show, for "Most Memorable Year" week, Victoria and Val finished in second place on the judges' leaderboard with a near-perfect score of 29 out of 30 possible points.

Victoria has said competing on the show is "a dream come true" and means the world, so one can only imagine how she'd feel to actually win the mirrorball trophy.


Below is a list of 8 facts Reality TV World has compiled about Victoria Arlen:

- At age 11, the lifelong swimmer and athlete fell ill with transverse myelitis and acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, rare conditions that left her in a four-year long coma and without use of her legs for nearly 10 years.

- When Victoria was in a coma, she could hear conversations going on in her hospital room as doctors expressed losing hope for any sort of improvement in her condition.

However, with support from her family, the athlete's health improved tremendously.

- Victoria was born on September 26, 1994 in Boston, Massachusetts. She is a triplet and has two brothers.


- In June 2010, Victoria returned to the pool for the first time after recovering and worked towards competing in the Olympic Games.

Two years later, she participated in four events at the London Paralympic Games in Spring 2012 and took home one Gold and three Silver medals.

- Victoria is a world-record holder in the 100-meter free.

- As a TV personality, Victoria has reported for numerous sports programs -- including X-Games, Invictus Games, The ESPY Awards, Special Olympics World Games and SportsCenter.

- Victoria is a motivational speaker who lives by the motto: "Face it. Embrace it. Defy it. Conquer it."


- Victoria has been a keynote speaker at many events, including Disney, Pfizer and Liberty, sharing her story across the country.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski