While vying for the coveted Mirrorball Trophy, more than a few Dancing With the Stars contestants have sustained injuries that have lingered long after the cameras stopped rolling. In September 2025, DWTS season 29 winner Kaitlyn Bristowe said she is still dealing with issues surrounding her ballroom injury five years later. "I would have said, 'Don't injure yourself,'" Bristowe said on Tori Spelling's "Misspelling" podcast regarding advice she would have shared to herself. "That was my main focus: to stop getting injured all the time. [My win] was worth the injuries, yes, but I'm still suffering years later from cracked ribs and pulling a muscle that was under my ribs." Bristowe noted that her "tendonitis will flare up every time" she "wear[s] heels now." Kaitlyn Bristowe Says Her Ribs Are 'Still Cracked' From 'DWTS': 'Worth It' "But, I'm, like, 'I'll do it again,'" she added. Aside from the former Bachelorette, Christie Brinkley suffered injuries that required surgery during a season 28 dance rehearsal with her former partner, Val Chmerkovskiy. The supermodel ended up dropping out of the show before its premiere. In May 2022, Brinkley explained to Hello! that she is still undergoing tests because when she broke her arm she also "did something to [her] shoulder which has not recovered." Keep scrolling to see what more DWTS contestants have said about getting injured on the show: Kaitlyn Bristowe After winning season 29 of the show with Artem Chigvintsev in 2020, Bristowe said she is "still suffering years later from cracked ribs and pulling a muscle that was under my ribs." "My tendonitis will flare up every time I wear heels now. But, I'm, like, 'I'll do it again,'" she said on the "Misspelling" podcast in September 2025. "Well, it's crazy because one of my girlfriends had won it the season before, and I was, like, 'Why did you not prepare me?' She was like, 'I don't think people should prepare them because then they won't do it.'" 'Dancing With the Stars' Injuries Through the Years Bristowe added that "it would be scary to know how much work and injuries you go through to get to the end." "Like, it's crazy," she recalled. Christie Brinkley Christie Brinkley Justin Stephens via Getty Images Brinkley dropped out of DWTS season 28 prior to the premiere of the show after she suffered injuries that required surgery. Her daughter, Sailor Brinkley-Cook, ended up taking her spot, however, Brinkley has still not "recovered" fully. "When I broke my arm, I also did something to my shoulder which has not recovered. I have done a round of MRIs and they told me I need a complete shoulder replacement," she explained to Hello! In May 2022, adding that she doesn't "have time" for the surgery so she was "looking at stem cell treatments" to help. "We'll see how that goes." Hannah Brown The former Bachelorette shared in January 2021 that she was dealing with some lingering physical injuries from DWTS after winning the Mirrorball Trophy in November 2019. "For the past five months, maybe almost six, I haven't been able to work out like I used to, and ... it really brought me down because I didn't know another way," she shared in a series of Instagram Story videos. "I'm either zero, 100. All in, nothing. And I definitely let it get me down. But I'm really starting to finally get that motivation back and I want to share it with you guys because I think a lot of us can relate to going a long time without working out and sometimes it feels impossible to start again." Kaitlyn Bristowe's 'Dream Job' Is Hosting 'Dancing With the Stars' Brown went on to say that she has been "going to the doctor" to try and figure out her issues but she thinks "a lot of [her] body hurting comes from some issues that started on Dancing With the Stars." "I just kept going from zero to 100 - I'm either all or nothing - and pushed it too much to where I now have, like, some issues that I am going to deal with," she shared, noting she goes to physical therapy and goes on "some walks and bike rides." Bill Nye Bill Nye Imeh Akpanudosen/Getty Images A year and a half after he suffered a quadriceps tendon injury during season 17 of DWTS, Nye explained that "the injury is still not all the way done." "If I go up steps two at a time, after a few, like the subway in New York, if I go up those steep steps, I can still feel it," he said in an interview with Reality Blurred in January 2015, noting that he went through "all kinds of rehab" after the incident. "Did not need surgery. The guy said it was 80, maybe 90 percent tear." Biggest 'Dancing With the Stars' Controversies Through the Years Despite his injury, Nye shared that he would "go back in a second" to DWTS. "I'd get up from this table and go back. It's the coolest thing," he gushed. "I would not do those deep knee things. We would just dance around that, if you will. Too many deep knee rehearsals caught up with me. It was cool, though." Terra Jole After competing on season 23 of the dancing competition, the