Going for the Gold: Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto

Ice dancers Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto have gone through many challenges and triumphs during their 11 years together. They've seen each other through injuries and citizenship issues, podium finishes and an Olympic medal.

Now they hope to reach the pinnacle of their career with an Olympic gold medal in February at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

Belbin was born in Kingston, Ontario, and began ice dancing at 3. She had trouble finding a partner, so she switched to pairs skating when she was 10. (Ice dancing differs from pairs skating in that there are no throws or jumps, and the lifts cannot go above the male's head.) However, her love was ice dancing, so she moved to Michigan to find a partner when she was approximately 13.

Agosto was born in Chicago and early on found strong interests in skating, music and baseball. He began to take skating seriously at 5. He competed with various partners before traveling to Michigan in search of a new partner when he was 16.

It was in Detroit in 1998 that Belbin and Agosto first met. After a two-hour tryout, they knew that they had found the right match.

Leading up to the Salt Lake City 2002 Olympic Winter Games, the duo finished second at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. Although typically that would be enough to earn them a spot on the Olympic team, they were unable to participate in the Winter Games because Belbin wasn't an American citizen.

Four years later, they were concerned they might miss out on another chance at competing in an Olympic Winter Games. On Dec. 31, 2005, six weeks before the Torino 2006 Olympic Winter Games, the couple received a break. President Bush signed a special act of Congress that allowed Belbin to become a naturalized citizen.

She and Agosto were then eligible to compete in Torino, and they brought an Olympic silver medal home to the United States. It was the first silver medal for Americans in the event and the Americans' first medal in the event since 1976, when the sport was first introduced in the Games.

Now the duo seeks Olympic gold. In the quest for a second Winter Games appearance, Belbin and Agosto have won a medal at every event in which they've participated since the 2005-06 season with one exception, the 2008 World Championships, where they placed fourth.

Not long after those World Championships, they left their longtime coaches in Detroit and began training in suburban Philadelphia with 1980 Olympic ice dancing champions Natalia Linichuk and Gennadi Karpanosov.

In the past year, they earned a world silver medal, and off the ice, they scored marketing and advertising opportunities with Ralph Lauren, De Beers, and Procter and Gamble.

Currently the two are skating on the ISU Grand Prix circuit. At the Cup of China (Oct. 29 to Nov. 1) in Beijing, 25-year-old Belbin and 27-year-old Agosto finished first. They had another gold-medal finish last week at the Cancer.Net Skate America (Nov. 12-15) in Lake Placid, N.Y.

The pair only has two more events before the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games: the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final (Dec. 3-6) in Tokyo and the U.S. Figure Skating Championships (Jan. 14-24) in Spokane, Wash. It is then that Belbin and Agosto will find out if they are Vancouver bound, but it's probably safe to say they can start packing their bags.

Tags: Ben Agosto, Going for the Gold, Ice Dancing, Salt Lake City 2002 Olympic Winter Games, Tanith Belbin, U.S. Figure Skating, Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games