On the heels of this week's Dancing With the Stars finale, a trio of past winners have offered advice to the trio of remaining contestants.

What will it take for each to come out on top? That's what People asked three recent champions...

Kristi Yamaguchi, on Gilles Marini: “Gilles’s biggest weakness is getting too excited while dancing and forgetting to pay attention to the technical details of the dances. In order for him to win, Gilles will have to pull out a crowd-pleasing freestyle with the WOW factor.”

Apolo Anton Ohno, on Shawn Johnson: "[She] has the technical side of the dances down. Now she’s got to really turn on her personality. She’s got to be animated and bubbly and showcase her goofy side this last week.”

Helio Castroneves, on Melissa Rycroft: “She has habits, she was a ballerina for so long,” Castroneves observes. “She’s very graceful and we know she can dance. She already has the finesse, now she needs to perform to the audience even more.”

Click on each photo above to enlarge images of these Dancing with the Stars finalists.

Matt Richenthal is the Editor in Chief of TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter and on Google+.