U.S. figure skater Sasha Cohen says she's doing the quad 
simply because she can. 
American quad queen likes to test the limits
Cohen drives herself hard; drives her coach mad

Sassy - it's a word that simply shouts out at you whenever
American figure skater Sasha Cohen walks into a room. Her 
body language, the way she talks, her confident - some would
say cocky - attitude command attention.

SO IT'S NOT SURPRISING that when asked about her goal of being
the first woman to land a quadruple jump in competition, she
plays it cool and nonchalant.

"I think one reason I'm doing the quad is because I can do it 
and it's not just something out there that I'm trying to do," 
Cohen says. "I've done it before and it would be amazing to do 
it in a competition."  

       Pushing the limits is nothing new to Cohen. She loves 
to "push it" in everything she does. She pushes her body to 
the point of breakdown, she pushes her coach to the point of 
breakdown, and she loves to push her opponents to the point 
of breakdown.
       "She's one of most frustrating skaters I've ever worked 
with," says John Nicks, her veteran coach. "Sometimes she just 
doesn't listen."
       Not true, says Cohen, 17.
       "It's not that I don't want to listen, it's just that I
have my own ideas," Cohen says. "I have my ideas about how things 
should be done and Mr. Nicks has his. I like to push people and 
it's also a way to push myself."
       The same is true for the quad. Sure, Cohen wants to go 
down in history, but she also knows what having a quad in her 
arsenal will do to the psyche of her opponents.  
 
"It's not that I don't want to listen," says U.S. figure skater 
Sasha Cohen, "it's just that I have my own ideas."
          "It's something to give me an edge on my competitors 
and be able to feel that I can continue to push my competitors," 
she says.
       When it comes to her body, though, Cohen has had a problem 
with the way she pushes herself. She worked her body to the point 
of breaking last season, suffering a stress fracture of her fifth 
lumbar vertebra.
       One doctor told her to forget about the nationals and take 
a month off. A second gave her permission to compete but seriously 
limited the amount of time she could spend on jumps in practice.
       What was Cohen's reaction? At the end of a practice where 
she wasn't supposed to do any jumps, Cohen launched into a triple 
Lutz.   
       Sasha Cohen's coach, John Nicks told us, "I earn my money 
when I coach Sasha."
       However, Cohen wasn't ready for nationals and was forced 
to withdraw from the competition. This year, Cohen says she's 
smarter when it comes to training.
       "It (the back injury) started from not taking care properly 
and continually (not) doing the right thing, which I really wasn't 
experienced in," she says. "So I learned from that and I've been 
going to physical therapy. I feel a lot stronger this year on and 
off the ice."
       Cohen has also had to adjust to her body. She has grown four 
inches in the time between the 2000 nationals and the start of the 
2001-2002 season. 
       "It happened so slowly, so it wasn't all at one time, and I 
just kept adjusting," she says. "Some weeks it would be a little 
harder, but I just worked on my technique."
        And when it comes to the Games, it's not surprising that 
she has one goal in mind.
       "I want to be first," she says. "I want to be on the top of 
the podium because I am a competitor."