Ice Dancing

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.

Now, don't get me wrong. I love the Winter Olympics. But sometimes I do flip the channels. However, the Games seem to keep following me no matter what I watch.* TV movie on USA Network: "Dr. Weissflog, you need to operate immediately." "Quick, nurse, hand me the Hunderfossen."* Late-night commercial on CNN: "If you've been hurt on the job, call Gordeeva and Grinkov, your personal-injury attorneys."* "Yo! MTV Raps": "Our next video is 'Baby Got Luge' by Sir Schuss-A-Lot."* "Love Connection": "No, Alberto, you can only go out with one of the girls, not all three at once."

There aren't any purple dinosaurs on skates in Dorothy Hamill's Ice Capades.Instead, like a fairy godmother, Ms. Hamill has turned the once flashy, carnival atmosphere of this popular ice show with its Las Vegas-inspired costumes into a class act with her substantive production of "Cinderella -- Frozen in Time" now appearing through Sunday at the Baltimore Arena.Local choreographer Tim Murphy, co-founder of the Next Ice Age along with Nathan Birch, have contributed their considerable choreographic talents to this delightful rendition of the beloved fairy tale.

NEW YORK - An alleged Russian organized-crime figure was charged yesterday with conspiring to fix the pairs figure skating and ice dancing competitions at the recent Salt Lake Winter Olympics, which were dominated by a judging scandal in the pairs competition. Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov - who was arrested by Italian police at his resort home in Forte dei Marmi - appeared to have a singular motivation: getting a visa to return to France, where he once lived. The U.S. attorney in Manhattan alleged in an unsealed criminal complaint that Tokhtakhounov conceived and directed a scheme with a second Russian mobster and a member of the Russian Skating Federation to secure a gold medal for the Russian pairs skaters and for the French ice dancers, one of whom is Russian.

DETROIT -- Who's No. 2?That is the question, and rallying cry, of the 1994 U.S. Figure Skating Championships, today through Saturday at Joe Louis Arena.Brian Boitano, making his return to Olympic-caliber competition, and Nancy Kerrigan, a reigning American champion, are among the favorites expected to glide through the nationals on the way to next month's Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway.But the suspense isn't who will win in the United States -- it is who will earn the other Olympic qualifying spots.

LANDOVER -- Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean took ice dancing from Fred-and-Ginger ballroom-boring to a new level when they won the Olympic gold medal in 1984 with "Bolero."It was not so much a higher level of skill as it was a new inner level.The British couple abandoned the traditional dancers' embrace for an intricate weaving of arms and legs that only hinted at the fabric of human responses that they sought to convey.dTC Those complexities -- both physical and emotional -- will be on display tomorrow night at the Capital Centre at 7 p.m. when Torvill and Dean, whose names are legendary even outside the skating community, return to head-to-head competition for the first time since 1984 in the NutraSweet World Professional Figure Skating Championships.

The State of Maryland Hall of Fame is unique among the various halls of fame around the country. Ours is for athletes born in the state and representing every sport imaginable.When this year's new members are enshrined at the organization's annual luncheon Feb. 17 at Martin's West, a perhaps unimaginable sport -- ice dancing -- will be added with the honoring of the late Lois Waring McGean.In the late '40s and early '50s, when she competed as Lois Waring, this Baltimore-born and -raised skater won the U.S. title five times and the World Championship in London once.

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.

Kristie Zeiler - tall, slender and a student of ice dancing and figure skating for 10 years - swept in from the ice at the Mount Pleasant Ice Arena yesterday morning. Blades flashing, she glided gracefully up to the wall, threw first one leg, then the other across the barrier and rolled over like a lumberjack clambering over a downed spruce. It's not a move she learned in ice dancing. But then Zeiler, 19, of Rosedale, wasn't wearing her figure skates. She and her sisters Megan, 15, and Allissa, 13, and 25 other girls were competing against eight other teams in Baltimore Youth Hockey's first all-girl "PonyTail Tournament," played at three area rinks.

Amanda Agnew isn't quite old enough to get a driver's license, but she is comfortable moving 70 mph.All she needs is a small sled and an icy track.The Aberdeen High School sophomore is one of the United States' brightest young stars in luge.A member of the U.S. Junior National Luge Team that trains from Latvia to Lake Placid, Agnew lies on a flat sled and races down slick, winding tracks for much of the fall and winter.At speeds of up to 70 mph, it only takes her about 42 seconds to reach the bottom of a 1,200-meter run. She goes so fast even she doesn't look where she's going, but not because she's afraid.