Aaron Prager, 3rd Place, United States Dance Championships, Youth International Ballroom

The United States Dance Championships, held annually in Orlando, is one of the largest dancesport competitions in the country. International Ballroom, often called Standard, is contested over five dances: Waltz, Tango, Viennese Waltz, Foxtrot, and Quickstep. Couples dance all five on the floor together, are marked independently by a panel of judges in each dance, and the individual placements are combined into a single final result.

Aaron and Anna Zotova competed as couple 761 in Heat 1406, the Youth International Ballroom final. Nine judges marked the round.

They placed 3rd in Waltz, 4th in Tango, 3rd in Viennese Waltz, 4th in Foxtrot, and 3rd in Quickstep, finishing 3rd overall out of the five couples who reached the final, and taking home the bronze medal.

Ballroom is the third strand of Aaron’s life alongside the software and the advocacy: he has been competing since well before BoostT1D existed, managing Type 1 diabetes through training and competition the whole way.