Bloggin’ on the Edge

Posted by Scott Spielman Jeff Novak at 6:00 AM | Comments

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Olympic ice dancing silver medallists Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto parted ways with their Canton Township coaches and are moving to Pennsylvania to continue their training for the 2010 Olympics.

The U.S. Olympic silver medal ice dance team of Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto said ‘so long’ to Canton Township last week and headed for a new beginning in Pennsylvania.

The surprise announcement came just weeks after the duo failed to win a medal in the World Championships last month.

Instead of returning to the Arctic Edge in Canton where the two trained, the five-time U.S. Champions decided to head east to Aston, PA where the coaching duo of Natalia Linichuk and Gennadi Karponosov will guide them through the next stage of their skating careers.

The highly respected Linichuk and Karponosov were the 1980 Olympic ice-dancing champions and coached numerous former World and Olympic ice-dance champions.

“Natalia and Gennadi are highly accomplished coaches and we are very excited about working with them to take our skating performance to a new level,” said Agosto.

Belbin and Agosto said the decision to leave the area was a difficult one but they felt it was necessary to gain fresh input and bring a new perspective to their skating. This move marks an important step in their training and commitment as they aim for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

The ice dancers got their start as a team in the Detroit area where they practiced and trained in Canton and have earned numerous national and international skating honors while training there.

The township even named a street after the duo after their 2006 silver medal performance in Turin, Italy.

“We will be forever grateful to the city of Detroit for its support and for giving us a terrific home for the past 10 years,” said Belbin.

“Detroit will always be like home for us,” added Agosto, “but sometimes to grow you need to leave home and explore new opportunities.”

Belbin and Agosto spoke warmly of their former coaching team, Igor Shpilband and Marina Zoueva that helped build the team into national champions.

“They are a remarkable coaching pair and we have great admiration for them,” Agosto said.

“We never would have achieved our current level of success without Igor and Marina,” added Belbin, “and we are very grateful for their friendship and their guidance over the past years.”

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