Madison Chock, Evan Bates win repeat ice dance gold with a nod to U.S. trailblazers

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Madison Chock, Evan Bates win repeat ice dance gold with a nod to U.S. trailblazers

MONTREAL — When Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto finished second at the 2005 World Championships in Moscow, it was the first time in 20 years a U.S. ice dance team had won a world medal.

Who could have guessed that would be the beginning of a beautiful friendship between U.S. ice dancers and the awards podium at global figure skating championships?

Madison Chock and Evan Bates added a new line to that story Saturday, becoming the first U.S. dance couple to win consecutive world titles and giving their country medals in 17 of the last 19 worlds, including at nine in a row.

“I absolutely remember vividly when they (Belbin and Agosto) won that silver medal in 2005,” said Bates, 16 at the time. “It seems like that really was the catalyst for what has become a great two decades of U.S. ice dance. ... They really blazed the trail.”

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Stunning at nationals: both the Shibutanis' free dance and judges' decision are electrifying

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Stunning at nationals: both the Shibutanis' free dance and judges' decision are electrifying

ST. PAUL, Minn.  – It was hard to know which was the more stunning part of Saturday afternoon’s the ice dance final at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships.

The electric brilliance with which Maia and Alex Shibutani, the @ShibSibs, performed their free skate to Coldplay’s “Fix You?”

Or the judges doing the right thing, rare in ice dance, with scores that made the Shibutanis champions ahead of designated darlings Madison Chock and Evan Bates, the defending champions and reigning world silver medalists?

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