Why is This More Offensive Than the Rest of The Performances?

It wouldn’t be the Olympics without a figure skating controversy. But this one doesn’t involve crooked Russian judges. It involves the costume for the Russian pair, Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabilin. For the second of three dances, the original dance, the theme was folk dances. Teams were asked to perform a traditional dance from a world culture, not necessarily their own.

Some teams performed something from their own country, like the Israeli team (the brother and sister duo of Roman and Alexandra Zaretsky who performed to “Hava Nagila.”

Others paid tribute to different cultures like Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto’s Moldovian folk dance.



But Domnina and Shabilin did an Australian aboriginal dance complete with face paint and leaves. And they were criticized for culture theft. The pair researched aboriginal culture and what they came up with seems no different than the portrayal of aboriginees in other outlets I’ve seen. It also seemed no more hokey and contrived than any of the other dances.

On a side note, Domnina is a Poop favorite though possibly unbeknownst to most of you. The Oksana Domnina nipslip picture I linked to years ago has been a great source of hits for this blog. In the weeks leading up to and including the Olympics I’d say at least 100 hits per day are directly related to her nipple. Imagine if I got a Tanith Belbin nip slip!

Tanith Belbin's Badunkadunk

Four years ago we fell in love with U.S. ice dancer Tanith Belbin. But little did we know we were contributing to her disordered eating. According to a New York Times article Belbin has spent the last four years getting stronger and adding weight, 10 pounds supposedly, from 105 to 115 (she's 5'6"). Now she is better able to hold herself up since her legs and core are stronger.

"She never binged, purged or used laxatives, she said, but she restricted her calories to the minimum. She would eat a small breakfast, then later snack on celery or a few almonds to get her through the day. After practices, she was too weak to lift her arms. Once in her apartment, she would stare blankly ahead, sapped of energy.

When she could not control her hunger, she would eat a huge dinner and find herself two pounds heavier. It horrified her."



Here's what she looked like in 2006, bones and ribs visible:



And here's what she looks like now, not a major difference but a little more to her:

Poor Ben Agosto

It has long been my contention that Ben Agosto kept Tanith Belbin has his ice dancing partner even at the risk of his Olympic dream (she was not an American citizen) because he wanted to get in her pants. I felt it was one of those deals where he's in love with her but they're just friends. She complains to him about her boyfriend and it eats him up inside. What a kick in the pants it was when she referred to him as her best friend on national TV. Turns out Tanith has been in a long term relationship with Canadian figure skater Fedor Andreev (the son of one of Belbin and Agosto’s coaches, Marina Zoueva).

I Heart Tanith Belbin

The sexy skater and her partner, Ben Agosto won the silver medal in ice dancing. It was the first U.S. medal in ice dancing since 1976. Thanks to our great President for signing the order in time for her to become a U.S. citizen before the Games.

Like Stacy Keibler, but Shorter

Thanks to all the falls, our girl Tanith Belbin and her partner Ben Agosto moved into second in the ice dancing competition headed into the final dance tonight.

Hot Skater

Saw this letter to Bill Simmons and thought I needed to check it out:

Q: Two words -- Tanith Belbin. The hottest athlete I've seen, maybe EVER ... She was SO HOT that I sat there on Thursday Jan.12, and watched an entire three minutes of ice dancing, simply because of Tanith Belbin. She was so hot that I lost all sense of judgement. I was actually saying that the ice-dancing choreography was really good and "Wow, look at her skates!!" I realized afterward that it was similar to the "South Park" episode about Bebe's Boobs. If you've never seen it, this fourth-grade girl starts to get boobs, and all the boys are possessed, thinking all sorts of nonsense like, "Bebe is really smart" and "I wish I could be more like Bebe" ... Then they all start fighting over her like cavemen/monkeys ... All because of her boobs. The moral of all this -- I got sucked in by some hot girl on TV, who I will never even see in person ... She made me watch ice dancing!!! She made me make my friends watch the same performance later that night ... And guess what! They loved her! Even ridiculously hot women on television, who really aren't even physically within 2 feet of you, can make you do things you normally would never think of doing. God bless 'em ... or damn them all to hell. Either way, she's still hot and I will look forward to the ice-dancing championships at this year's Olympics.
-- Blaise, San Diego

SG: See, this is the stuff you don't get in Sports Illustrated's Winter Olympics preview.

So my verdict is, yes, she's very good looking. But obviously this reader has really turned up the hyperbole, like Simmons himself.
Belbin is a Canadian who recently became an American citizen when an appropriations bill assisting aliens of "extraordinary ability" was signed by President Bush on Dec. 30. She was able to compete as an American in international competitions, but in the Olympics you can only compete for the country of which you are a citizen.