Slips and falls shake up ice dance competition

Updated: 2006-02-20 10:37

TURIN, Italy (AP) -- All those slips and slides -- and glares and stares -- to a Latin beat made the genteel sport of ice dance look like roller derby.

In an event where nobody but nobody falls, just about all the contenders did in Sunday night's original dance. And the biggest beneficiary of the splatfest were Americans Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto.

The Americans jumped from sixth to second place -- and back into medal contention -- after two couples in front of them fell. Their score of 97.89 points left them 1.38 points behind two-time world champions Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov of Russia.

More importantly, they will be just four minutes away from ending the United States' 30-year Olympic medal drought when they skate in the free dance Monday night.

"It's very exciting to be here, but at the same time, we have to work extra hard to keep our emotions under control," Agosto said.

Tell that to crowd favorites Barbara Fusar Poli and Maurizio Margaglio. They started the night in first place, much to the delight of the Italian, flag-waving crowd. They finished on their backsides, shaking up the standings and glaring at each other for several long seconds before taking a final bow.

The fall wasn't so bad, but the drama that followed was pure theater.

Fusar Poli and Margaglio were doing a lift when she seemed to get out of position, he lost his balance and they both crashed to the ice.

Barbara Fusar Poli and Maurizio Margaglio (L) from Italy fall in the original dance figure skating event at the Torino 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Turin, Italy, February 19, 2006. [REUTERS]

They got up, but instead of nodding to the judges and acknowledging the crowd, they stood apart and stared each other down. Neither was giving much ground and watching them made you wondered if fists would start flying.

No hugs for this couple.

Finally, they turned, smiled and left the ice.

While awaiting their marks, Fusar Poli buried her head in her hands -- and that was before she saw the marks that dropped them to seventh.

And to think they were the toast of Turin on Friday when they were atop the standings in compulsory dance.

The 2001 world champions retired after winning a bronze medal in Salt Lake City, but returned solely so they could compete in their home country. Chants of "Italia, Italia" shook the arena from the time they took the ice on warmups, but the crowd shut down in a hurry when they saw the couple's not-so-graceful tangle.

"Understandably, nobody wants to fall," Belbin said. "Clearly there's a lot of emotion involved ... and it's heightened because it's the Olympic Games. Everyone will go home tonight, have a good night's sleep and realize the competition is not over yet."

Maybe not everyone.

Falls are rare in ice dance. While couples do intricate lifts and carries, they don't do jumps or toss each other around as they do in pairs. There is one thing ice dancers are famous for -- bad costumes, and there were plenty of them out there.

That's usually what the talk centers on afterward, but on this night the falls trumped even the hideous color combinations.

"Today, a lot of couples fell," Navka said. "I think it's mental problems."

Fusar Poli and Margaglio had plenty of company. Italy's No. 2 couple, Federica Faiella and Massimo Scali, fell, as did Margarita Drobiasko and Povilas Vanagas of Lithuania. They were medal contenders before the games began, but they tumbled when she tripped over her toe pick.

The most painful fall was that of Canadians Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon.

Doing their final lift, she was in a split with both her hands wrapped around Lauzon's arm. But as he spun her around quickly, her hands slipped and she fell hard on her right hip and knee. He fell, too.

"That never happened so far for a dance lift," Lauzon said. "Perhaps there was too much force in the rotation."

She doubled over in pain when they were done, and couldn't put any weight on her right leg as she and Lauzon left the ice. Lauzon carried her out of the arena.

Dubreuil was taken to a local hospital, and Lauzon said it was too soon to say whether they would compete Monday night. They dropped from fourth place to sixth.

"I just hope Marie's fine," he said. "We'll have to see how she is, and then we'll deal with it."

Belbin and Agosto skated last, just after the Fusar Poli/Margaglio debacle. While some lingering murmurs from the crowd indicated something unusual had happened, neither knew exactly what before they took the ice. Skating to a steamy mix of salsa, rhumba and cha cha, they could have just as easily been in a hip South Beach club as the Winter Games.

They were animated and sold the dance as much with their upper bodies and faces as they did with their feet. Though they got slightly out of unison on their straightline footwork, they made up for it with a gorgeous curve lift that filled an entire corner of the rink.

And best of all, they made it through the program without the slightest of stumbles.

"This is an extremely close competition and this is the first time we've been in a competition that is so close," Agosto said. "It makes everything count all that much more."

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