No sign of rust on her blades
SPOKANE, Wash. — Eyebrows raised when Sasha Cohen announced last spring that she was coming back. When she had to withdraw from her Grand Prix assignments, the news drew smirks.
She wasn't really going to come back after almost four years away, was she? If she did make it to nationals, would she be any good? Could she hold her own against skaters nearly a decade younger? Was this all a show?
Oh, it was a show all right. The best one the United States has seen since the last time Cohen laced up her skates.
"Looking back at my track record, I know I train hard, I try my best, I'm a fighter. Every time I go out there, I give it all I have," Cohen said after answering the skeptics with a performance in Thursday night's short program that has her in second place at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships.
"I came back because I missed it and I love being here," she added. "I really, really appreciate the people that have come to care about me and cheer me on and just the personal struggles I've overcome to be here. That gives me a lot of faith and confidence in my skating."
Less than a point separates leader Mirai Nagasu, Cohen and Rachael Flatt, and the knock on Cohen has always been her ability — or lack of — to hold it together when it matters most. She has yet to do clean short and long programs in the same major event, and she will have to be perfect, or pretty darn close to it, to earn one of the two Olympic spots.
"It was a good start, an extraordinarily good start," Cohen's longtime coach John Nicks said. "But that's all it was. The rest of the job has to be done Saturday."
Cohen hasn't skated competitively since the 2006 world championships, and it's no secret the Americans have missed her. They haven't won a medal at worlds since she went on hiatus, and fared so poorly last year the United States has only two spots at the Vancouver Games. That's only happened one other time since 1924.
Better yet, Cohen's mere presence at an event makes it a happening, like the A-list star who makes a small-budget indie film a must-see. There was a buzz in the arena usually reserved for a final, and the click of dozens of camera shutters could be heard the minute she came into view.
As always, it's the show that sets Cohen apart.
Headlining the "Stars on Ice" tour during her break has only sharpened her performance skills, and her component scores — the old artistic mark — were the highest of the entire field. Her spirals are, if possible, even more impressive than before, and the audience probably would have been happy just to see those. She did a forward Charlotte, extending her leg so her body is in the full splits and her upper body is touching her skating leg, that had the audience whooping and whistling.
And as she began her footwork, she gave the fans in the front row a saucy little smile as if to say, "Missed me, didn't you?"
