There’s a shift at the top in U.S. ice dancing

Reporting from Spokane, Wash. — 

In a figure skating discipline where results seem frozen by past performances, where even the new judging system has had minimal effect on the glacial pace of change at the top, what happened Thursday was like the impact of a century of global warming.

The hierarchy in U.S. ice dance, as solid for most of the past decade as the polar ice cap had been, appears to be melting.

That was the most logical interpretation of the core sample judges at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships provided by placing Meryl Davis and Charlie White ahead of Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto in the compulsory dance phase of the competition.

After all, compulsories have always been the weakest of the three phases for Davis and White.

And this is now the first time since 2003 that Belbin and Agosto have not taken every phase of the event while winning five straight U.S. titles before withdrawing last year because Agosto was injured.

Davis and White, the reigning champions, were first in compulsories with 45.42 points to 45.02 for Belbin and Agosto. The scores were personal bests in the national meet by nearly five points for Davis and White and more than three for Belbin and Agosto.

The two couples not surprisingly viewed the result – and the eventual outcome after Saturday’s free dance – from different perspectives.

“We’re very happy being ahead,” White said, “but it’s such a slim margin. It’s obvious the judges are keeping it close to see what both teams have to offer in the original dance and free dance. They don’t want to give one team an unfair advantage.”

Belbin, 25, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Canada, and Agosto, 28, who grew up in the Chicago area, started with the advantage of an impressive international resume, including a 2006 Olympic silver medal and four world championship medals, including a silver last year.

She figures that edge still will hold at the Olympics, for which both teams are certain to be selected by U.S. Figure Skating, although Belbin seemed to be rationalizing in downplaying results here.

“We’ve said it before: We’re using this as our final practice before the Olympic Games,” Belbin told the Detroit Free Press. “There is a lot that is out of our control in terms of placement and whatnot, and I think the scene will change dramatically for the Olympics and when the international [judging] panel is [in place].”

White feels winning nationals is especially significant so close to the Olympics.

“It is very important to finish first,” he said. “You want to go into the Olympics as the top U.S. team. That means a lot to everyone across the world.”

Each team won two Grand Prix events this season, but the international panels there gave Davis and White considerably higher scores in both than Belbin and Agosto received in either.

A showdown at the Grand Prix Final did not occur because Belbin’s wisdom tooth problem forced her team to withdraw.

Davis, 23, and White, 22, juniors at the University of Michigan, won that event, their first major international gold medal. They were fourth at last year’s worlds.

“We don’t want to go in [to Vancouver] as just having made it,” he said. “We’re going for Olympic gold, so we want to go as one of the top dogs”