Dancing for joy

TURIN -- It had been 30 years and it literally took an act of Congress to make it happen. Until last night, American ice dancers had been more than a few beats behind the orchestra at the Olympics, but new citizen Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto made their own history at the Palavela last night, earning the silver medal behind Russian favorites Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov.

''It's absolutely amazing," said Agosto, after he and his Canadian-born partner climbed out of sixth place following Friday's compulsory dance to produce the best US finish ever in the event. Colleen O'Connor and Jim Millns won bronze in 1976, when ice dancing made its Olympic debut in Innsbruck. ''I really feel the medal belongs to a lot of people who put in years and years of dedication and work, building the sport of ice dancing in the US."

But it was the 21-year-old Belbin and the 24-year-old Agosto who finally got the Yanks back in the global chase after two decades without even a world medal when they won a silver at last year's world championships in Moscow. That had them looking solid for the podium here. The only question was whether Belbin would get her citizenship in time.

For much of last year, the couple assumed that she wouldn't because they didn't want to get their hopes up for what figured to be a long shot. ''The moment we saw the flag rising was one we couldn't imagine having," said Belbin, ''because we didn't want to create a dream that we couldn't obtain for reasons out of our control."

Once President Bush signed a bill authorizing accelerated citizenship just before year's end, the dream began taking shape. But the pressure to produce began rising, too. ''A lot was riding on our shoulders," said Belbin. ''So we hoped to come out of this with a medal and say it was all worth it."

If the old 6.0 scoring format were still in use, Belbin and Agosto wouldn't even have made the podium after their placement in the compulsories. But under the new code of points, they were less than three-10ths out of third and still very much in contention.

''You can have rankings, but still have people be very close," said Agosto. ''We knew there were seven or eight teams that were very good. The new system allows for some of that unpredictability."

After Sunday's flop festival in the original dance, where three of the final five couples had falls, the standings were thoroughly jumbled. Out of contention were Italian former world champions Barbara Fusar Poli and Maurizio Margaglio, who ended up sixth last night, and Canada's Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon, who pulled out before the free dance after Dubreuil concluded that she couldn't put weight on her right leg. ''Ice dancing has to be done by two," Lauzon said. ''So if she is injured, I am injured, too."

Sitting pretty after their spirited Latin combination were Belbin and Agosto, who'd moved up to second after the OD and within striking distance of gold. That put the squeeze on Navka and Kostomarov, the two-time world champions whose mission was to retrieve the dance title that the French had lifted at Salt Lake City. ''Yes, we feel the pressure," said Kostomarov, who was 10th with Navka four years ago. ''Before us, the pairs and men's singles win the gold. We didn't have any chance to make a mistake."

Once he and Navka cruised deliberately through their Carmen program to pile up a total of 200.64 points, they looked to be good for gold. ''The Russians did well, but not exceptional," observed Gwendal Peizerat, who won the 2002 title with Marina Anissina. ''Just what they had to do. Enough. What they needed."

The challenge for Belbin and Agosto, who ended with 196.06, was to stay in the medals, especially after Belbin made two minor mistakes (a bobble on a twizzle and a stumble on a step sequence) that put them fourth in the free dance. ''There was some hesitation of celebration," she said.

But the work they'd done on Sunday paid off when neither Ukraine's Elena Grushina and Ruslan Goncharov (195.85) nor France's Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder (194.28) could catch them. When the final numbers went up, order of finish was exactly the same as it was in Moscow. But the price of this silver for the Americans was far more in sweat and sleeplessness. ''We've had an up-and-down year emotionally," said Agosto. ''We weren't sure we were going to be here. Now, to be here and have a medal around our necks is amazing."