God Bless America!

Next month, the Olympic Games commence in Torino, Italy, and a spirit of competition, passion, and cameraderie will once again capture the hearts of the twenty or so Americans who pay attention to the events. I, for one, generally get more excited about the Summer Games than the Winter Games. I always look forward to swimming, track and field, and gymnastics. But, this year, I've found a reason to cheer on the Red, White, and Blue in Torino. And her name is Tanith Belbin. (I'll give you a hint, she's the one in the middle.)



On February 17th, ice dancing compulsories begin, and the duo of Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto will be skating for the US of A. Why is that so special? Well, for one, the duo had to sit out the Salt Lake Games because Olympic rules, which differ from national rules stating that only one member need citizenship) require that both members of a duo must be citizens of the country they are representing. At the time, Agosto was from the US, BUT Belbin still held Canadian citizenship since she was born in Ontario (what do they put in the water in Canada?!). So, after a nailbiting citizenship process that finally came to a conclusion on December 31th, the pair are skating at nationals as a fully sworn-in duo. USA! USA! USA! Oh, whatever.

For those who don't know, ice dancing is a form of figure skating that focuses less on triple axles and triple toe loops and more on, you guessed it, paired dancing. It's a lot of fun to watch, and I remember first seeing it in the 1994 Lillehammer Games and rooting for the eventual Gold medalists, Oksana Grischuk and Evgeny Platov of Russia. Check it out, it's lively and entertaining.