NOVI, Mich. – When ice dancers take the ice at the Winter Olympics, five teams will have a unique bond.
Folks at the Novi Ice Arena are rooting for American ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates, but they're also cheering on the ice dancers from the Czech Republic, South Korea, Great Britain and Ukraine.
They want them all to win. It's not an issue of split loyalty, it's the unique challenge of having Olympic ice dancing teams from five different countries all training on the same ice.
Team Novi is made up of Chock and Bates, the Czech Republic's Cortney Mansour and Michal Ceska, South Korea's Yura Min and Alexander Gamelin, Great Britain's Penny Coomes and Nicholas Buckland and Ukraine's Oleksandra Nazarova and Maksym Nikitin.
They all came to Novi to train for the Olympics because of coach Igor Shpilband.
Though they're all world-class athletes, they're also vulnerable to the boredom and routine of training. But this arrangement eliminates that obstacle. At the Novi Ice Arena, there's an element of competition on the practice rink every day.
As the Olympics continue, so will the fierce competition between these ice dancers. They're competing for themselves, their countries and Team Novi.
You can watch Steve Garagiola's full story in the video posted above.