events

Close Race After Olympic Compulsory Dance

Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images Sport

2006 Olympic Winter Games Photos, News and Blogs

(2/17/06) - Italians Barbara Fusar-Poli and Maurizio Margaglio made good on their comeback to the competitive ranks, taking the lead Friday night in the 2006 Olympic Winter Games compulsory dance.

The Italians, 2002 Olympic bronze medalists, decided last year to give the Olympics one more shot in their home country. They did not compete in any major international competition this season and have not skated under the new judging system.

Fusar-Poli and Margaglio may be in the lead, but the margin between them and sixth-place finishers Tanith Belbin & Ben Agosto is negligible. Five teams, including reigning World champions Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov of Russia, are less than two points behind the leaders.

Belbin and Agosto are in the hunt for America's first Olympic ice dancing medal since 1976, and they were happy with their opening dance to the Ravensburger Waltz.

“I think that compared to the last time we competed this dance at Skate America it was an improvement,” Belbin said. “At Skate America we really held back; we were very conservative with this dance. This time we tried to be a little more aggressive. It was shaky here and there. We could have competed it better, but really we felt proud that we could go out there and attack it with confidence knowing that the rest of the event is even better for us.”

The Americans are in sixth place with 37.36 points, while the leaders scored 38.78. Agosto called the small margin the difference between “one three-turn.”

Melissa Gregory & Denis Petukhov of the United States are in 15th place with 30.51 points. The Olympic experience for them has taken on a greater meaning as they realize they are living their dreams.

“I can't even describe what we feel,” Gregory said. “It's just like butter. Like a really good piece of dessert. You wait your whole life to get here and I really can't describe it. It was like a dream and it was done before I could even blink my eyes.”

For Petukhov, the dreams go farther than just on the ice. Through ice dancing, he also met his wife and became an American citizen.

“As I tell everyone I'm a living example of the American dream,” Petukhov said. “Being able to represent the United States – five years ago I walked into this country having only one bag of clothes. In five years to get this honor to represent the country, that's just unbelievable and hard to describe. I'm very proud of that.”

Jamie Silverstein broke one of her skate laces minutes before heading onto the ice, but she kept her cool.

“I was surprised how relaxed I was,” she said. “I broke my lace so I didn't have time to worry about much else. I think I had about two seconds, and I stepped on the ice and Ryan squeezed my hand and off we went.”

She and partner Ryan O'Meara are in 18th place with 27.53 points.

Navka and Kostomarov are in second with 38.20 points followed by Bulgarians Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviski (37.65), Canadians Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon, and Ukrainians Elena Grushina and Ruslan Goncharov (37.39).