Benjamin Agosto

Benjamin Agosto
Full name	Benjamin Alexandro Agosto
nation	United States
birthday	January 15, 1982
place of birth	Chicago, Illinois
size	175 cm
Career
discipline	Ice dance
Partner	Tanith Belbin
Former partner	Katharine Hill
society	Arctic FSC
Trainer	Natalja Linitschuk, Gennady Karponosov, Igor Schpilband, Marina Sujewa, Elizabeth Coates
choreographer	Natalja Linitschuk, Igor Schpilband, JT Hornstein
status	resigned
End of career	2010
Medal table
Olympic medals 0 × 1 × 0 × World Cup medals 0 × 2 × 2 × VKM medals 3 × 3 × 0 ×
winter Olympics silver Turin 2006 Ice dance  World figure skating championships silver Moscow 2005 Ice dance bronze Calgary 2006 Ice dance bronze Tokyo 2007 Ice dance silver Los Angeles 2009 Ice dance Four continents championships silver Jeonju 2002 Ice dance silver Beijing 2003 Ice dance gold Hamilton 2004 Ice dance gold Gangneung 2005 Ice dance gold Colorado Springs 2006 Ice dance silver Colorado Springs 2007 Ice dance
Personal best
Total points 221.26 World Cup 2005  Freestyle 111.54 World Cup 2005  Short program 44.00 VKM 2005  Original dance 67.54 World Cup 2005
Placements in the figure skating Grand Prix
Podium placements 1. 2. 3.  Grand Prix Final 0 2 1  Grand Prix competitions 9 4th 2

Benjamin Alexandro Agosto (born January 15, 1982 in Chicago , Illinois ) is a retired American figure skater who started in ice dancing .

Career

Agosto is the son of a Puerto Rican father and a Jewish mother with roots from Romania and Russia. He started ice skating at the age of six after being given a pair of ice skates on his birthday. From 1995 to 1998 he started ice dancing with Katharine Hill. In 1998 he moved from Chicago to Detroit to train with Igor Schpilband . This brought him together with his new ice dance partner Tanith Belbin . The couple started for the Arctic FSC Club in Canton, Michigan .

In 2000, the reigning US junior champions Belbin and Agosto made their debut at the Junior World Championships and won the bronze medal. In 2001 they made their debut at the US Senior Championships and immediately won the silver medal. This success gave them their senior world championship debut, which they finished in 17th place. Previously, they had won the silver medal in their second Junior World Championship participation. In 2002, Belbin and Agosto won the silver medal at the national championships and would have qualified for the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City , but the Canadian-born Tanith Belbin was not yet a US citizen at that time. For this they took part in all other competitions for which they were eligible. In Hamar , Norway , they became junior world champions , thus completing their set of medals at junior world championships. They won the silver medal on their debut at the Four Continents Championships . They succeeded in doing this again the following year.

Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto at the 2004 World Cup in Dortmund

In 2004 Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto became US champions for the first time . They defended this title until 2008. At the championships in 2005, the last one where the 6.0 rating system was used, they only received top marks for the presentation of their freestyle. Of the 30 6.0 ratings given at U.S. Ice Dance Championships, 14 go to her account. In Hamilton , Canada , they won the gold medal at the Four Continents Championships in 2004 . They defended this title in Gangneung in 2005 and in Colorado Springs in 2006 . At the 2005 World Championships in Moscow , Belbin and Agosto won their first World Championship medal with silver, and it was also the first World Championship medal for the USA in ice dancing in 20 years. This sometimes led to the USA having three starting places at the Olympic Games in ice dancing for the first time since 1984. Tanith Belbin became a US citizen through a special bill of Congress approved December 28, 2005 and signed by President George W. Bush on New Year's Eve . Thus participation in the Olympic Games in Turin was guaranteed. There Belbin and Agosto won the silver medal behind the Russians Tatiana Nawka and Roman Kostomarow . It was the first Olympic medal for a US ice dance couple since the 1976 Olympics when Colleen O'Connor and James Millns won the bronze medal. At the subsequent World Championship , Belbin and Agosto won bronze, and this result was repeated the following year .

After a disappointing fourth place at the 2008 World Cup , the ice dance couple changed coaches and now worked with Natalja Linitschuk and Gennady Karponosov in Aston, Pennsylvania . Belbin and Agosto won their last World Cup medal in Los Angeles in 2009 with silver, just behind the Russians Oxana Domnina and Maxim Schabalin . At the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver they missed a medal as fourth. On June 10, 2010, they announced their retirement from competitive sports.

Results

Ice dance

(with Tanith Belbin )

Competition / year	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
winter Olympics							2.				4th
World championships		17th	13.	7th	5.	2.	3.	3.	4th	2.
Four continents championships			2.	2.	1.	1.	1.	2.
World Team Trophy										1.
Junior World Championships	3.	2.	1.
American championships	1st J	2.	2.	2.	1.	1.	1.	1.	1.	Z	2.
-
Grand Prix competition / season	99/00	00/01	01/02	02/03	03/04	04/05	05/06	06/07	07/08	08/09	09/10
Grand Prix Final					3.	2.		Z	2.	Z	Z
Skate America			5.	3.	1.	1.	1.		1.	2.	1.
Cup of Russia					2.			1.
Cup of China						1.		2.	1.	2.	1.
Trophée Lalique			6th	3.	4th

• Z = withdrawn; J = juniors

Web links

Commons : Benjamin Agosto  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Benjamin Agosto in the database of the International Skating Union (English)
• Benjamin Agosto in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )
• Official website
• Profile at USFSA