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"We have so many years between us and our main competitors, it is good to know we have a lot of time left in the sport and it is very exciting to be where we are at this point." — Ben Agosto |
A Matter of Time
Belbin and Agosto ready to dance to the top, but when will their chance come?
By Susan Wessling
Time. It's a word that is constantly mentioned in relation to U.S. ice
dance team Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto. Is time on their side? Well, yes and
no. For Belbin, 20, and Agosto, 23, their youth has not stopped them from
soaring to new heights this season in a discipline that generally favors older
skaters. They are the 2005 World silver medalists, as well as the two-time
U.S. and Four Continents champions. These are no small feats, considering
they have only been together for six years.
"We are so happy to achieve this level at such a young age," Belbin said
before the two left for the World Championships in March. "It is really
ridiculous, but if you look at the past results [it seems like] you have to be
over 30 to be World champions. It is just not fair to think you always have
to wait in line. So we really feel like if we deserve to be where we are,
then no matter what age we are, we should be there. We are just so excited to
have been able to do something new and to be so young in the sport."
Agosto emphatically believes time is on their side. "I think we've been
the young team for our whole career and it seems like we still are the young
team," he said in an early March interview. "We have so many years between us
and our main competitors, it is good to know we have a lot of time left in the
sport and it is very exciting to be where we are at this point."
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Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto exuded confidence at the 2005 World Championships. |
The 2004 and 2005 World ice dance gold medalists are Russia's Tatiana
Navka, who turned 30 on April 13, and Roman Kostomarov, 28. The 2005 World
bronze medalists are Ukraine's Elena Grushina, 30, and Ruslan Goncharov, 32.
If you compare the ages of four of the top five couples at this year's World
Championships (Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder of France were fourth
and Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviski of Bulgaria were fifth), a spread of 11
to 15 years exists between them and the team of Belbin and Agosto.
'New and Young Team'
"To me they are a very new and young team," Judy Blumberg said of Belbin
and Agosto. "I think they have a long way to go."
When Belbin and Agosto won the silver medal at Worlds, it was the first ice
dance medal at the event for a U.S. ice dance team since Blumberg and partner
Michael Seibert won a bronze in 1985. The last U.S. ice dance team to win a
silver medal there was Colleen O'Connor and Jim Millns in 1975.
Belbin and Agosto's finish at Worlds this year would seem to put them in
contention for gold at the Olympic Winter Games in Torino. But time also is a
factor when it comes to their Olympic hopes. As it stands now, they will not
compete in 2006 in Torino as Belbin is a Canadian and she will not be eligible
for U.S citizenship in time for the Games.
"It looks like we will not be going," Belbin said. "Just following in the
stream of how the system gets processed and set up, I should receive
citizenship in 2007. Of course there have been particular cases in the past
where citizenship has been expedited for an individual in a unique situation,
but in the rules it is stated that it needs to be an emergency situation.
"We feel we could represent the States well. I feel like this is my home.
We are so used to being on the U.S. team; it's unfortunate that we cannot be a
part of the U.S. Olympic team," Belbin added. "I guess the most frustrating
part is that we have no control over whether or not we can participate, no
matter how badly we want to go or how much we want to make this country proud
of us, we will just not be allowed to have that opportunity [in 2006]."
Belbin also can see a positive aspect to the situation. "A lot of the
danger in skating, as far as your mental stability goes, is focusing on
events, results and placements. Not being able to go to the Olympics makes
Ben and I focus on goals beyond events and placements," she said. "We are
focused on being the best skaters we can be, focusing on the fundamentals of
our lives and our careers. That is the silver lining."
When Agosto speaks about the 2006 Winter Olympic Games, a bit of hope can
be heard in his voice. "At this point, there are a lot of people who are
trying their best and working very hard to try to find a way for us to become
eligible to go to the Olympics in 2006. We really appreciate all the effort,"
he said. "But, we have accepted the fact that we are not going to go and we
have really set our goals beyond the Olympics."
Blumberg, herself a former Olympian, three-time World bronze medalist and
five-time U.S. champion, thinks the two should be allowed to compete in
Torino. "It is not a closed book," she said. "They deserve that opportunity.
They are a wonderful ice dance team."
A technical specialist in ice dance, Blumberg said Belbin and Agosto have
an international flair. "That is, first of all, due to their coaches, the
influences of Marina [Zoueva] and Igor [Shpilband]," Blumberg said. "But also
they have really capitalized on their strengths, insofar as that Ben has a
very, very strong style and personality on the ice and they have chosen music
that complements that. Tanith has really grown in the last year and I think
her personality is coming through big-time in the pieces they are doing. Also
the strength of her skating has improved."
Blumberg described Belbin's on-ice personality as confident, dynamic and
exciting. "The dynamics of what she is putting out there are not subtle,"
Blumberg explained. "She is out there and really expressing the music and she
is letting us see a side of her that we have not seen before."
Belbin and Agosto certainly had an air of confidence at the World
Championships. Their joy was evident as they performed their gypsy dance in
the free skate. Their program has a high degree of technical difficulty and
they were superb in Moscow when it counted. In fact, they received higher
technical scores in the free skate than overall winners Navka and
Kostomarov.
Early Chemistry
Belbin and Agosto had an immediate chemistry when they began skating
together, Belbin said, and they quickly forged a friendship. "We truly, truly
enjoy what we do for the purest and simplest of reasons — we just love
figure skating and we are so happy to be able to do it together," she said.
"I think the audience can really feel that and it makes us more
relatable."
Agosto said it is never a chore for them to work together or spend a
significant amount of time with each other. "The other big aspect of what
makes us who we are is that we just really enjoy what we do," he said, "and I
think that comes across when people watch us skating."
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"We feel we could represent the States well. I feel like this is my home." — Tanith Belbin |
They have certainly helped put fans in the seats at events where ice dance
has not been a big seller. "It has been very interesting and very exciting to
see the amount of support and excitement of ice dancing increase," said Agosto
who points to the 2005 State Farm U.S. Championships as an example. "It seems
like we had a recordbreaking crowd for the compulsory dances. We are so used
to doing the compulsory dances and seeing maybe a handful of parents and
skaters in the stands. To have the turnout we had in Portland at the
compulsories was incredible and it just got better and better from there."
People are beginning to see changes in ice dance, he said, due in part
to the elements now required under the ISU's new judging system. "It is
making the sport more exciting to watch and now with the new judging system
making some of the results a little more interesting, a little more unexpected,
people are starting to become more excited about that as well," he said.
Belbin credits the team's coaches — Shpilband and Zoueva — with helping
them popularize the sport in the United States. "Their experiences in
the sport are so vast, they have really dedicated themselves so much to
training us, and their expectations for us are so high," Belbin said.
"I really feel like they have created programs that have pushed the envelope
from what may have possibly been shown in U.S. ice dancing.
"The energy that Ben and I have and the confidence that we continue
to develop are pushing us forward. But we also have looked up to past
U.S. champions and sometimes felt they were not given credit where it
was due. I can't really say why we have been able to push through, but
we are going to keep pushing and hopefully break some more ground."
The couple is not yet close to reaching its full potential, Agosto said.
"We have come a long way since we started together six years ago, but
I just feel like there is so much more room for us to grow and improve
and keep expanding the horizons of our skating," he said. "I couldn't
say when we will peak. Hopefully it will be at an opportune time but I
think it is a long ways down the road."
Olympic Aspirations
Six years is not a long time for an ice dancing couple to be together,
Belbin points out. "We have improved so much each year and we have so much
more ground to cover," she said. "We are still learning new characters and
there are so many different types of programs that we haven't explored yet. I
even feel like in the basic technique of our skating we can continue to
improve. … I just think we have quite a ways to go. We are definitely
looking to stay in it until at least 2010, so we can have our Olympic
experience and I think we can continue to grow up until that point."
As for what they will be doing during the 2006 Games, Belbin said, the two
will be in Detroit — their training base — preparing for Worlds.
"Our focus will definitely remain the same," she said. "We will concentrate
on our next event. I think that if this year goes well, we can continue to
grow and push forward and see where Worlds takes us. And with retirements
happening directly after the Olympics, who knows what will happen? It could be
a very new ballgame."
Jokingly, Agosto said when the 2006 Olympic Winter Games take place, he
would like to be on a tropical beach, enjoying the sun. "I have a feeling
that we will be training," he quickly added. "We are just going to focus on
what our job is going to be and being able to perform the best we can when the
World Championships come around," he said. "My biggest goal is to be the best
skater I can be, and that kind of goes hand-in-hand with being the best in the
world. I know that is something that we will be able to accomplish.
"I think that we have the dedication to both each other and to achieving
that goal, and we have the support team, our loved ones, coaches and family,"
he added. "There is such a good support structure underneath us that there is
no way that we can fail. I think it is only a matter of time and hard
work."
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