As she recovered from a broken foot, U.S. Olympic luger Kate Hansen needed a low-impact way to warm up. She found dancing. “I couldn’t run, but I could stand in place and dance, so that’s what I’ve been doing,” the 21-year-old told “TODAY.” And once the cameras caught her rocking out to her headphones before her races in Sochi, it was all over. America fell in love.
Hansen isn’t trained in dance, but her unabashed get-pumped breakdowns—exclusively to Beyoncé, she says—are so fun to watch. And she pulls off glides, body rolls and a little pop-and-locking way better than the average hip-hop newbie.
She didn’t medal this year—one stuffy sports announcer blames her lack of a more luge-specific warm-up routine—but we’ll keep an eye out for her on the next “Dancing with the Stars.” (And as a student at Brigham Young University, perhaps she’ll stumble into some dance training with Jodi Maxfield!) In the meantime, check out these moves and just try not to smile.
Photo: Alexander Hassenstein, Getty Images