Congress rightly considers plight of ice dancer

0 Comments | USA TODAY, November, 2005 | by Christine Brennan

Tanith Belbin is the kind of athlete many Americans would want to have represent them overseas. She's gracious and well-spoken. She has raised money for the less fortunate. She's one of the least likely people on earth to cause an international incident. And she wins a lot.

She is everything the United States would want in an Olympic athlete, except for one very essential detail. She is not ours.

Tanith Belbin is a Canadian, even though she left Canada and moved to the United States in 1998, when she was 14.

She also is an ice dancer, and a very good one. She and her partner Ben Agosto are the best ice dance team the United States has fielded in 30 years, and if they were given a chance to represent the country at the upcoming Winter Olympics, they'd likely...