Olympics Live: American ice dancers deliver top performance

BEIJING (AP) — The American ice dance team of Madison Chock and Evan Bates delivered the best free skate of their career during the team competition at the Beijing Games. That almost assures Team USA of its first silver medal in the event. Russia continues to lead the Americans by a wide margin with only the women’s free skate left. Chock and Bates were able to edge Russia’s world champions, Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov. The Russian duo was next. Japan was tied with the Americans after the pairs competition but was last among the five ice dance teams. That left the Americans six points behind Russia but more importantly four ahead of the Japanese team.