Ice Dancing

Nick Sinchak is a busy 18-year-old chasing an Olympic dream. The Harwood resident skates with Samantha Tomarchio in ice dancing competitions, and the pair are slowly becoming among the country's best. Both said they would watch the Olympics when they begin next week in Italy, but the pair is hoping to be there to compete in the future. They are moving up the ladder in the world of ice dancing. The pair recently took third place at U.S. nationals in St. Louis and is going to advance to the junior level - one below that of Olympic competitors.

College football Terps ' Vellano named top D-lineman in ACC Maryland's Joe Vellano was honored Monday as the Defensive Lineman of the Week by the Atlantic Coast Conference for his play in Saturday's 21-16 loss at No. 13 Georgia Tech. Vellano made a career-high 20 tackles, including 14 solo stops and a tackle for loss. Vellano became just the fifth defensive player in the nation to post 20 or more tackles this season and the sixth Maryland player — as well as the only defensive lineman — to reach the 20-tackle plateau since 1990.

TURIN, Italy -- Like most U.S. athletes who attended last Friday's opening ceremony, Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto met first lady Laura Bush. Unlike most of the athletes, Belbin and Bush had some politics to discuss. "It certainly was an honor for her to be so familiar with my case and my citizenship situation," Belbin said later. "She referenced that when she spoke with us and she's extremely supportive." Ice dancing Chs. 11, 4, tonight, 8-11:30

GOTHENBURG, SWEDEN -- Figure skater Ashley Wagner summed it up best: "It's a lot harder than it looks." She was speaking about her performance at the World Figure Skating Championships, but she could have been the spokeswoman for U.S. teammates Kimmie Meissner and Bebe Liang. The trio faced the nearly impossible task of protecting the team's three slots for next year's world championships, the last before the 2010 Olympics. But that hope evaporated in a sea of nerves and missed opportunities.

A Wagnerian soprano, complete with Viking helmet, yellow braids and breastplate, warbled and trilled an introduction for Gov. Parris N. Glendening at the State House yesterday as he sang the praises of First Night Annapolis.Glendening issued a proclamation extolling the alcohol-free New Year's Eve celebration of the arts. The event will showcase performers on street corners, in store windows, churches and government meeting rooms throughout the city's historic district for the seventh year.

NAGANO, Japan -- Before we get to the results of the ice dancing competition at the 1998 Winter Olympics, we take this timeout for Pasha Grishuk's Olympic dating game.Does Russia's great ice dancer have a boyfriend?"Why? Do I look like I have a boyfriend?" she said yesterday. "No. Unfortunately, I don't have a boyfriend. On Feb. 17, I want every cute guy to come to the [Olympic] village to make him stand in line. Put the cutest on the right side and the not-so-cutest on the left. But only gold medalists, please."

SHE IS 16. He is 14. She's been skating 13 years, since she was 3 - simply fell in love, her mother recalls, with what she saw inside after insistently asking what "that building" was, meaning the Columbia Ice Rink. He's been skating only four years - hockey was the draw, but now, he has no time for sticks and pucks. Barely seven months ago, Amanda Buckler and Justin Thelen were hardly aware of one another. They were two young skaters from different counties working on different things on ice mostly at different times, although for the same coach in the Columbia Figure Skating Club.

Pilar Bosley was a bundle of nerves, waiting for her name to be called to skate at the 2005 State Farm U.S. Figure Skating Championships. "At the first part of the competition, I looked out and I could see all these people," said 16-year-old Bosley, a junior at C. Milton Wright High School in Bel Air. "I started breathing heavy and pacing and wringing my hands together. I was so nervous. I was wondering if I could do it." When Bosley and her skating partner, John Corona, 16, were called, her jitters were forgotten, and the couple ice-danced their way to a fourth-place win in the novice dance category.

ST. LOUIS -- Appropriately enough, newly minted U.S. citizen Tanith Belbin and partner Ben Agosto yesterday began their march to the Olympic ice dancing competition to "Yankee Polka." Before a scant crowd at the Savvis Center, the two-time national champions and silver medalists at the 2005 world championships scored a 41.57 in the compulsory dance at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. The couple is overwhelmingly favored to win this event and to contend for the country's first Olympic ice dancing medal since 1976, the year the event was added to the Winter Games.

Samantha Tomarchio will watch the Olympics when they begin next week in Italy. But the 15-year-old Ellicott City resident is going to have a lot more interest than most people. Tomarchio and partner Nick Sinchak are moving up the ladder in ice dancing competition. The pair recently took third place at the novice level at U.S. nationals in St. Louis and advanced to the junior level, one step below the Olympic level. And with four years to get ready, Tomarchio is hoping that she and Sinchak can find their way to the Olympics.

READING, Pa. -- Kimmie Meissner beat the world champion and the world junior champion and survived the judges who decided to enforce the scoring system yesterday to earn the gold medal at Skate America. Going into the free skate with a 2.76-point lead, the U.S. champion squeaked by Japan's Miki Ando, the reigning world champion, by 1.34 points. Caroline Zhang, the junior champion, finished third. Meissner, 18, of Bel Air, called the victory, her first Grand Prix win, "just a great start for me."

If you are not part of the skating world, a Harford County resident or a cable television subscriber, you might not have seen a Maryland teenager claim the World Figure Skating Championship in Canada. When Kimmie Meissner, 16, of Bel Air took gold in Calgary on Saturday, the event did not play to an Olympics-sized television audience. But the hometown crowd, including former coaches and judges, enthusiastically cheered her accomplishment. "The Olympics gets so much hype, and its audience is worldwide, but if you are an avid viewer and fan of figure skating, you would follow the World Championships as much as the Olympics," said John Cole, an international ice dancing judge.

A few days after figure skaters, including Maryland's Kimmie Meissner, captured the attention of many at the Winter Olympics, a group of children and young adults were quietly working on their skills in the same sport. For 30 minutes Saturday morning at Gardens Ice House in Laurel, about 20 participants worked on their skating, including spins and jumps. And while they are not trying to imitate the Olympic skaters, it is clear to see they have the same pride in what they are trying to accomplish.

TURIN, Italy -- Ice dancing was introduced to the Winter Olympics in 1976. The United States won a medal, a bronze, then waited 30 years to put another couple on the podium. Standing there last night, as silver medalists, were Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto. An assist goes to the U.S. government, which passed a law late last year that enabled Belbin, a Canadian native, to become a citizen in time to compete here. But neither the U.S. ice dancing team nor the government could do anything to derail Russia's figure skating team, the Big Red Machine of these Games.

TURIN, Italy -- Big, fat, heavy snowflakes blanketed the Pavela last night, but inside the ice palace of the 2006 Olympics it was hot-hot-hot as, to the beat of Latin rhythms, Americans Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto vaulted into medal position with a captivating, crash-free free skate. "Crash-free" being the operative phrase. On a night in which Olympic ice dancing made like Roller Derby, three couples fell spectacularly, including Italians Barbara Fusar Poli and Maurizio Margaglio, when he accidentally dropped her at the end of their program - after which they glared at each other, hands on hips, for more than 30 seconds near center ice. The red-haired Fusar Poli sulked through kiss-and-cry, reacted with a dramatic hand over her eyes at the scores that dropped them from first after Friday's compulsory to 10th, then stalked off ahead of Margaglio, not once looking back.

Ice dancing FUSAR-POLI & MARGAGLIO TV: NBC, 7-midnight -- After winning the bronze medal in ice dancing in 2002, Italy's Barbara Fusar-Poli and Maurizio Margaglio figured they couldn't do any better and retired. But the lure of the Winter Olympics in their home country proved too great and they returned to competition this season. "How could we resist the temptation?" Fusar-Poli said. It turns out they might have been wrong about not being able to improve on their Salt Lake City performance.

NAGANO, Japan -- She is skating's most controversial star, a mercurial performer who changes her hair color, her clothing style, even her name at a moment's notice. One opponent has slashed her with a skate. Another once smashed her face into a bar.She is Pasha Grishuk, and, with her partner Yevgeny Platov, she is out for an ice dancing gold medal at the Winter Olympics.The tempestuous Russians, who train in Marlboro, Mass., are the reigning Olympic champions. They will hit the ice during tomorrow's first phase of the ice dancing competition.

TURIN, Italy -- It was so overwhelming, Italians Barbara Fusar Poli and Maurizio Margaglio couldn't help but cry when they saw the marks from the judges. The pair came out of retirement to compete in last night's Olympic compulsory dance, and it was well worth it. The Italians finished first in the compulsory, which kicks off the three-day competition, after an inspired performance to the Ravensburger waltz. The 2002 bronze medalists received full support from the pro-Italian audience.

TURIN, Italy -- Like most U.S. athletes who attended last Friday's opening ceremony, Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto met first lady Laura Bush. Unlike most of the athletes, Belbin and Bush had some politics to discuss. "It certainly was an honor for her to be so familiar with my case and my citizenship situation," Belbin said later. "She referenced that when she spoke with us and she's extremely supportive." Ice dancing Chs. 11, 4, tonight, 8-11:30