Olympic Coach
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Coaches Zoueva and Shpilband flank Olympic ice dancers Agosto and Belbin.
rguably the best professional
move ice dancers Ben Agosto
and Tanith Belbin could have
ever made was their 1998 relocation to
Detroit to train with Coach Igor Shpilband.
While each showed promise independ-
ent of each other — Belbin in Canada,
Agosto in Chicago — becoming partners,
under the guidance of Shpilband, is about
to take them to the Winter Olympics from
Feb. 10 to 26, where they are favored to
win the first U.S. Olylmpic ice dancing
medal since 1976.
And a late December surprise, created
by Michiganians, has allowed them that
opportunity four years earlier than expect-
ed. As a Canadian, Belbin would not have
been able to compete on the U.S. Olympic
team this month in Turin, Italy, because
she was not eligible for American citizen-
ship until 2007. But on Dec. 31, she was
sworn in as an American citizen because
of a bill authored by U.S. Sen. Carl Levin,
D-Mich., and supported by U.S. Rep.
Thaddeus McCotter, R-Livonia, and
Michigan Speaker of the House Craig
DeRoche, R-Novi.
Almost since the start of their career
together, Shpilband, Coach Marina Zoueva
and the team of Belbin and Agosto,whose
mother, Miriam, is Jewish, have been in the
spotlight. First training at the Detroit
Skating Club in Bloomfield Hills and now at
Arctic Edge Ice Arena in Canton, Shpilband
is also choreographer for the pair whose
achievements include being two-time Four
Continents ice dancing champions and
2005 World silver medalists. And their first-
place win at last month's U.S. National
Figure Skating Championships marked their
third consecutive gold medal in ice dancing
competition.
While living in Russia, Shpilband, along
with Tatiana Gladkova, became the 1983
World junior ice dancing champion. He has
been in the U.S. since 1990. "That's when
I defected," Shpilband says. "I was part of
a professional tour with the Russian All
Stars and at the end of the six months, on
the very last day, I decided to stay in New
York. It was pretty dramatic."
In time, he moved to Detroit to coach.
His parents also came to Michigan and
now live in Waterford.
Although his father, Yuri, is Jewish,
Shpilband says, "Religion was not a part of
the culture in Russia when I lived there."
A
But since coming to the United States,
some of his family have become obser-
vant, including his uncle in Milwaukee who
is an Orthodox Jew.
In addition to coaching, Shpilband also
authored the book Basic Skating
Techniques for Dancing, and he has
basked in the accolades his career has
brought both himself and his students. In
1998, he was named U.S. Olympic Coach
of the Year, and he was recently chosen
both the 2005 U.S. Figure Skating-PSA
Coach of the Year and U.S. Figure Skating-
PSA Paul McGrath Choreographer of the
Year, having received the same two honors
in 2000.
Shpilband and Zoueva also coached
three of the top four senior ice-dancing
teams at the 2005 State Farm U.S. Figure
Skating Championships and two of the
three U.S. teams that medaled at the 2005
Four Continents Championships. In addi-
tion, Shpilband also choreographed the
free skates of skaters including World sil-
ver medalist Sasha Cohen.
Shpilband says he is "totally committed"
to all his skaters, including his and
Zoueva's Jewish ice dancer Jamie
Silverstein and her partner Ryan O'Meara,
who won a spot on this year's Olympic
team. "Igor puts his heart and soul into
what he does," Silverstein says.
After taking a two-year break from skat-
ing to attend Cornell University in New
York, Silverstein, who was 1999 World jun-
ior champion with former partner Justin
Pekarek, decided last winter to skate com-
petitively again. She moved back with
mom, Robin, in Bloomfield Hills to work
with Shpilband.
Silverstein and O'Meara train with both
Shpilband and Zoueva, whom Silverstein
calls "delicious, just great. They both
coach and Igor also works more on con-
structing the program."
Before Belbin became an American citi-
zen, she and Agosto expected to watch
Shpilband and Zoueva go off to the
Olympics with other skaters, while they
stayed back in Detroit preparing for
March's World championships.
Jokingly, Agosto told ifsmagazine.com
that when the 2006 Olympic Winter
Games take place, he would like to be on
a tropical beach, enjoying the sun. Instead
he, and his partner and coaches, clearly
have something else to do.
Iddho Belly
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