Where are the U.S. figure skating medals?
It’s hard to remember a time where the U.S. has gone into the Olympics without a leading prima ballerina of the ice. Michelle Kwan isn’t walking through that door, Tara Lipinski isn’t walking through that door, and Dorothy, Kristi and Peggy aren’t walking through it either. Instead the long lineage of American skating dominance shifts to the dancers. In Torino, Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto became just the second U.S. ice dance team to medal at an Olympics, doing so after a last minute act of Congress allowed the Canadian-born Belbin to secure her citizenship in time. Now the defending World silver medalists may not even be the best in their own backyard. Fellow U.S. teammates and University of Michigan students Meryl Davis and Charlie White beat Belbin and Agosto to capture their second consecutive U.S. title last month and they also took home the Grand Prix final back in December, an event Belbin was forced to withdraw from after an infection following the removal of her wisdom teeth.
