US ice dancers continuing legacy heading to Beijing Games

By BARRY WILNER
AP Sports Writer

For decades, ice dance was the stepchild of U.S. figure skating. While men and women were reaching the top levels of the individual events and even pairs skaters were looked at highly, there wasn’t much success for the ice dancers. From Colleen O’Connor and James Millns winning bronze at the 1976 Olympics through 2002, no Americans earned medals. In this century, however, it has become the most consistent of disciplines for Americans. Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto took silver in 2006, and Meryl Davis and Charlie White followed with silver in 2010 and gold in 2014. Four years ago, Maia and Alex Shibutani grabbed bronze.