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MONTREAL – When Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto finished second at the 2005 World Championships in Moscow, the U.S. ice dance team won its first world medal in 20 years.
Who would have guessed that this would be the beginning of a beautiful friendship between US ice dancers and the podium at the global figure skating championships?
Madison Chock and Evan Bates added a new twist to that story Saturday, becoming the first U.S. dance couple to win back-to-back world titles and giving their country medals in 17 of the last 19 worlds, including nine in a row.
“I vividly remember them (Belbin and Agosto) winning that silver medal in 2005,” said Bates, then 16. “It seems to have really been the catalyst for what has become two decades of US ice dance greatness. … They really blazed a trail.”
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Chock, then 12, said it was a trail he started following because his parents were inspired by watching Belbin and Agosto.
“It was actually the year I started ice dancing,” she said.
The 30-year-old couple, who will marry in June, look set to go on for another two years to give Team USA ice dance medals in six consecutive Olympics. They know that the next Winter Games are less than two years away.
“There’s a lot we have to evaluate before we go into another season because it certainly takes a lot of work, a lot of heart and a lot of anticipation,” Chock said.
“(Continuing) is not out of the realm of possibility, but we’re not going to get ahead of ourselves. We’ll see how we feel at the end of the season and after our wedding. That’s the biggest thing on my mind.”
Their gold at the Bell Center was a 3.57-point advantage they built in the rhythm dance on Friday over Canada’s Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier, who won the free dance by 1.05. Final scores were 222.20 for Chock and Bates and 219.68 for Gilles and Poirier.
A mistake by Chock and Bates on the opening element, the stationary lift, cost the Canadians enough to be the mathematical difference in the free dance victory.
The gold was the fifth world medal (two gold, one silver, two bronze) for Chock and Bates since 2015, and the most by the U.S. dance team, which they shared with four other couples, including 2014 Olympic champions Meryl Davis and Charlie. broke the tie for medals. White.
“When we coached at Michigan, they were our role models and our idols,” Bates said, referring to both Belbin and Agosto as well as Davis and White.
“Sometimes we’d share the ice with them and I remember just being in awe. Being a teenager and sharing the ice with your idols is the most motivating thing you can imagine. Therefore, we are definitely grateful to them.”
Philip Hersh, figure skater at the last 12 Winter Olympics, makes a special contribution. NBCSports.com.
