TURIN, Italy — When standing up becomes a challenge for ice dancers, anything is possible. Even an Olympic medal for the Americans.

As nearly all the contenders ruined their rhumbas with falls Sunday night, U.S. champions Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto surged into second place behind two-time world champs Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov. No American ice dancers have earned an Olympic gold medal since 1976, and Belbin-Agosto can do it with a strong free dance Monday.

Belbin and Agosto skated last and were not spooked by the earlier crashes that sank the top Italian and Canadian couples. Their passionate Latin routine sizzled in the wake of all the splats.

"We didn't really know what happened, but we could hear oohs and aahs, so you know something happened," Belbin said. "But you have to block it out. That's why we don't watch, because when you see it visually, it can affect you."

The spills, so rare in ice dancing, certainly affected the crowd, which was hoping for a fiesta on ice for the Italian stars Barbara Fusar Poli and Maurizio Margaglio. The Italian fans ended up sitting in shock as they tried to fathom how their favorites fell near the end of their program.

And whether Fusar Poli and Margaglio had a slugfest afterward.

Fusar Poli seemed to get out of position during a lift, Margaglio lost his balance and they crashed.

They tried to smile for the crowd when the music finished. But when they looked at each other, it was all daggers.

The chants of "ITALIA, ITALIA" had turned to stunned silence. And the medal chances for Fusar Poli-Margaglio turned to dust.

Appropriately, Fusar Poli broke down in tears in "Kiss and Cry," covering her face with her hands even before the marks that plummeted them to seventh were displayed.

While the Italians made the most noteworthy flop of the night, it was not the most painful.

Marie-France Dubreuil of Canada took a brutal fall. Near the end of her routine, she was in a split with both her hands wrapped around partner Patrice Lauzon's arm. Her hands slipped and she fell hard on her right hip and knee, forcing him to the ice, too.

She doubled over in pain when they were done, and Lauzon carried Dubreuil off the ice.

"That never happened so far for a dance lift," Lauzon said. "Perhaps there was too much force in the rotation."

Deubreuil was taken to a hospital for observation.

"I just hope Marie's fine," Lauzon said.

They slipped from fourth to sixth.

Ice dance never seems dangerous because, while couples do intricate lifts and carries, they don't do jumps. They don't toss each other around as in pairs.

The biggest danger is getting fined by the fashion police.

"Understandably, nobody wants to fall," Belbin said. "Clearly there's a lot of emotion involved ... and it's heightened because it's the Olympic Games. Everyone will go home tonight, have a good night's sleep and realize the competition is not over yet."

Navka and Kostomarov held a 1.38-point lead, and a victory would give Russia all three figure skating golds so far. Their countrywoman, Irina Slutskaya, is the women's favorite.

"The three couples on the podium today are couples who skate cleanly," Navka said. "I'm sure tomorrow will be the same situation.

"I want to win."

Third after the original dance were Ukraine's Elena Grushina and Ruslan Goncharov.

Navka and Kostomarov, second after compulsories, skated to techno versions of Latin music. While their taste in music and costumes — blue and brown leopard print with a goofy headband for Navka — might have been questioned, their performance couldn't be.

Most memorable were side-by-side steps a Broadway chorus line would envy, and their teasing routine earned 61.07 points, .54 more than the Americans in the original dance.

Kostomarov was surprised by all the falls: Italy's other dancers, Federica Faiella and Massimo Scali, went down in the final grouping, and Lithuanians Margarita Drobiazko and Povilas Vanagas also fell earlier in the evening.

"Of course, sometimes you fall in practice," Kostomarov said, "but in competition, the Olympic Games, especially when you are fighting for the top three places, it's much more pressure."