U.S. DOESN'T TAKE THE FALL ICE DANCE DUO IN LINE FOR FIRST MEDAL SINCE '76.Byline: Paul Oberjuerge Staff Writer TURIN, Italy - Ice dancing ice dancing, ice-skating competition in which couples are required to perform dance routines to music. The sport gained popularity in the 1930s and the first world championships were held in 1950. turned into an extreme sport at the Turin Olympics on Sunday, and when the smoke cleared the American duo of Tanith Belbin Tanith Jessica Louise Belbin (born July 11, 1984 in Kingston, Ontario) is a Canadian-American ice dancer. Though she holds dual citizenship, she competes for the United States and has competed for the U.S. since she began skating with Benjamin Agosto in 1998. and Ben Agosto had vaulted into position to end a 30-year U.S. medals drought. Three of the final five dance pairs fell, four of the final 10, allowing Belbin and Agosto to parlay their smooth and elegant Latin-themed routine into a move from sixth place to second heading into tonight's free dance. The last U.S. medal in the dance: A bronze by Colleen O'Connor Colleen O'Connor (born December 17, 1951 in Chicago) was an American figure skater. She competed in ice dance with James Millns. The pair won the gold medal at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships three times and captured the bronze at the 1976 Winter Olympics. and Jim Millns in 1976. ``I think if anything has been proven so far, we don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. who our challenger is,'' Belbin said. ``Anyone from (Nos.) 1 to 8 could be our challenger.'' The rash of falls at the Palavela arena on Day 2 of the three-day competition shuffled the standings - as well as demonstrating the difficulty of new lifts and routines in a discipline heretofore known more for passion than danger. ``There are so many elements now, you can make more mistakes,''said Russia's Roman Kostomarov Roman Kostomarov (Russian: Роман Костомаров) (born February 8, 1977) is a Russian ice dancer. His partner is Tatiana Navka. , who sits in first place with partner Tatiana Navka Tatiana Navka (Russian: Татьяна Навка) (born April 13, 1975 in Dnepropetrovsk) is a Russian ice dancer who has also competed for the Soviet Union and Belarus. . ``That's why I think lots of couples make mistakes.'' The most damaging fall was by the Italian duo of Barbara Fusar Poli and Maurizio Margaglio Maurizio Margaglio (born November 16, 1974) is an Italian ice dancer. He has partnered with Barbara Fusar-Poli to win a gold medal at the 2001 World Figure Skating Championships. , who went down moments before the end of an otherwise impressive program. Margaglio appeared to lose his grip on Fusar Poli, who then pulled him to the ice with her. She glared at Margaglio for a full 10 seconds, still on the ice, then broke into tears in the ``kiss and cry'' room. The home-crowd favorites dropped from first to seventh. The scariest fall: Canada's Marie-France Durbreuil hitting the ice hard on her right hip and knee when she slipped out of the grasp of partner Patrice Lauzon Patrice Lauzon (born November 26, 1975 in Montreal, Quebec) is a Canadian figure skater. He currently competes in ice dance with Marie-France Dubreuil. They joined forces on the ice in 1995 after he had split with his previous partner Chantal Lefebvre. during a spin. She was taken to a hospital to be examined. They slipped from fourth to sixth. Navka and Kostomarov have 99.27 points, Belbin and Agosto 97.89. Ukrainian duo Elena Grushina Elena Grushina (Ukrainian: Елена Грушина; born January 8, 1975 in Odessa, Ukraine) is a Ukrainian figure skater. She competed in ice dance with Ruslan Goncharov. and Ruslan Goncharov are close behind at 96.68. ``I think it's a testament to the Olympics, the pressure, and skating with the crowd so pumped up,'' Agosto said of the falls. ``We have to work extra hard to keep our emotions under control.'' Belbin and Agosto concede the Latin-themed original program, skated to the rumba, samba, mambo A popular open source content management system (CMS) that is used to create and manage Web sites. Written in PHP and using the MySQL database, Mambo was released in 2001 by Peter Lamont of Miro Construct Pty Ltd., Melbourne, Australia. and cha cha, is one of their strengths. ``We had one of our best skates,'' Belbin said. ``We're aware that a lot of other pairs didn't have their best days. ``Dance is extremely competitive at this point. You do get rewarded for good skates. Hopefully, we can give an even more emotional performance in the free skate.'' Paul Oberjuerge, (909) 386-3865 paul.oberjuerge(at)sbsun.com CAPTION(S): 5 photos Photo: (1 -- color) U.S.'s Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto completed the first day of ice dancing competition in second place. (2 -- color) Barbara Fusar Poli, left, and Maurizio Margaglio of Italy dropped from first to 10th with their fall. Mark Baker/Associated Press (3 -- color) Federica Faiella, bottom, and Massimo Scali of Italy were one of four pairs to fall on the first day. Al Bello/Getty Images (4 -- color) Patrice Lauzon, right, of Canada, drops his partner Marie- France Durbreuil. Kevork Djansezian/Associated Press (5 -- color) Lithuania's Polvilas Vanagas falls on top of partner Margarita Drobiazko. Eric Gay/Associated Press |
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