Metro

.Olympic

Local skaters do
well at Turin games.

Keri Guten Cohen

Story Development Editor

Pho to by Lee Jae -Wo n / Reu te rs

L

Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto won a silver medal at the Winter Olympics.

ocal Jewish figure skaters that participated in
the 2006 Olympics in Turin came home win-
ners.
Ben Agosto, 24, who graduated with honors from
Birmingham Groves High School in 2000, earned a sil-
ver medal in the ice dancing competition with his part-
ner, Tanith Belbin, 21, making them the first U.S. ice
dancing Olympic medallists in 30 years.
Their original dance program showed off a new,
seductive style.
Agosto, whose mother is Jewish and whose father is
Puerto Rican, also is an accomplished musician. He
played trumpet and French horn at Groves and was in
the school's jazz band. Now he also plays jazz guitar
and piano and says he hopes to be in a blues band
some day.
Last February, he and Belbin organized "Skate-Aid," a
skating show in Plymouth to benefit victims of the
December 2005 tsunami. Nearly $35,000 Ivas donated
to the American Red Cross.
Agosto and Belbin train and teach at the Arctic Edge
rink in Canton. Their coaches are Igor Shpilband and
Marina Zoueva.
Jamie Silverstein, 22, who was the subject of the IN's
Feb. 9 cover story, also trains in Canton with her part-
ner, Ryan O'Meara, 23, under the same coaches. The ice
dancing pair ended their Olympics debut in 16th place.
A graduate of Bloomfield Lahser High School,
Silverstein quit skating in 1999 to overcome an eating
disorder, but returned to the sport little more than a
year ago. She lives in Bloomfield Township with her
mother, Robin.
The pair agree that their original dance was a pivotal
moment for them.
"I was nervous finally',' Silverstein said on the U.S.
Figure Skating Web site. "I wasn't the last time, and that
was a shocker. Once we got to the rhumba and I had
such a fantastic partner out there holding me up, it was
a blast. It might not have been as crisp as normal but I
think it was good. We want to do our country proud."
And they did. ❑

March 2 2006

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