SM: You’ve injured yourself on the ice before and even fractured your skull at one point.
Belbin: Yeah. That was probably my worst spill because I knocked myself completely out. It’s frustrating to have a head injury because you feel fine off the ice. When you’re on the ice [after the type of injury I suffered], you have to wear a helmet. I had to wear a helmet for a month and it was just strange. You feel alright, but I felt really dizzy every time I got into [the harness used to train for jumps]. It was very frustrating to recover. It was very slow.

SM: Not only are you an Olympic medalist, two-time World medalist and six-time U.S. Championships medalist, but you and your partner, Ben, also took time out last year to plan and host a charity ice show for victims of the South Asian tsunami. How did that come about?
Belbin: First, we called an arena in our area that might work out and they said they would donate the rink, so we thought, “Well, that’s a good start.” We called all the skaters that we knew and everyone was kind of feeling the same way that we did—helpless and frustrated and knowing that there could be more we could be doing. We basically dedicated every spare minute we had to trying to track down the necessary resources we needed and have them donated, so we could put a show on. It was a very big challenge but it was probably one of the most life-changing experiences that I’ve had.