Rebel with a cause Cohen knows what she wants, but getting there is a matter for debate with her coach. January 6, 2002 Aliso Viejo -- It was a brief and rare respite from the rattle and hum of a fast-approaching Olympic year, a slow and easy mid-autumn drive up Interstate 5 from San Diego. John Nicks settled on a classical music radio station for the ride home. When the announcer introduced a program on the classic opera "Carmen," Nicks couldn't help but smile. For weeks Nicks, for five decades one of the world's foremost figure skating coaches, and Sasha Cohen, his prized pupil, had engaged in an ongoing, often heated debate over Cohen's desire to skate to music from "Carmen" during her long program at this week's United States Figures Skating Championships at Staples Center. Nicks opposed the idea. It had been done before, most notably at the 1988 Olympic Games in Calgary, site of the dueling Carmens - East Germany's Katarina Witt's flirtatious and sensuous interpretation going head to head with American Debi Thomas' athletic performance. "Why do something that has already been done?" Nicks asked. Still, Cohen refused to budge. Cohen's defiance was fresh on Nicks' mind as the announcer explained and analyzed Georges Bizet's tragic tale of the rebellious Spanish peasant and the trail of broken hearts she leaves behind her. Nicks began to realize Cohen was right. "Beautiful, attractive, tempestuous, combative, argumentative," Nicks said, listing the qualities of Carmen. "That's Sasha. A done deal." Inciting a riot Cohen, 17, a 4-foot-11, 90-pound package of beauty and rare grace, precision and elegance driven by a rebellious spirit, has made no secret of her desire to turn international figure skating upside down. "I'd like to cause a little riot in skating," said the Laguna Niguel resident. Cohen nearly did just that when she rocketed onto the international scene two years ago as a relatively unknown 15-year-old, coming within seconds of upsetting four-time world champion Michelle Kwan at the 2000 U.S. Championships. Since then she has seduced her sport, convincing it she could be a skater for the ages, the best of her generation. "An absolutely gorgeous skater," said Peggy Fleming, the 1968 Olympic champion, now an analyst for ABC. But Cohen has also frustrated skating, leaving it to wonder if she will not ultimately be the victim of her own impatience. With equal defiance she has pushed buttons and the edge of the envelope. "Sasha dances to her own drummer," Nicks said. It is the dance of a ballerina that has captivated the sport. She announced her arrival in her 2000 near-upset of Kwan with a move that has become known as the Sasha Curl, in which Cohen bent her head and torso so far back that her ponytail brushed the leg she was lifting behind her. She then thrust forward, grabbing her left ankle with her right hand, her head hovering just above the ice, her free leg pointed straight up at the stars. "Sasha has been a star since the first time she stepped on the ice," said Doug Williams, U.S. Championships president. "She is elegance personified," Nicks said. "I've said before that she is naturally unable to get into an ugly position. She looks fragile, but that's deceptive. She's a very tough young lady." She has defied history, gravity, one of the sport's most respected coaches and a career-threatening back injury. She has flirted with the Beamon-esque feat of becoming the first woman to land a quadruple jump. While grasping for the stars she has also learned the higher the reach, the harder the fall. "Sasha really attacked this year," Fleming said. "After the injury she wanted to come back this year and blow everybody out of the water, and it backfired on her." And now Cohen skates head on into the perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the U.S. Championships - the much talked about showdown between Cohen and Angela Nikodinov for the third and final spot on the U.S. Olympic team next month in Salt Lake City. Most experts see Kwan and Long Island 16- year-old Sarah Hughes, third in the 2001 World Championships, as locks for Salt Lake. "Michelle Kwan is a given and Sarah Hughes is pretty much a given," Nicks said. "It should be between Sasha and Angela for the last spot." Duel on the ice Cohen and Nikodinov both bring compelling stories to this week's spotlight. Cohen is coming back from a serious back injury that put her out of the 2001 U.S. Championships and most of last season. But the sentimental favorite is likely to be Nikodinov, 21, still mourning the recent death of her coach and mentor, Elena Tcherkasskaia. Tcherkasskaia, a one-time Bolshoi ballerina, died Nov. 12 in her native Moscow, just weeks after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Devastated, Nikodinov has turned to Coach Frank Carroll to steady her through the U.S. Championships and, if she qualifies, Salt Lake City. Carroll became available after Kwan dropped him in October after a decade together. Cohen refuses to be drawn into the intrigue. She has been so focused that she hasn't had time to name her new puppy, a belated present from her October birthday. Yet she makes it clear that she has no intention of being reduced to a supporting role, either at Staples or the Olympics. "Whenever I'm in a competition I always want to be on top of the podium," she said. "I've been working really hard for nationals and Salt Lake and, hopefully, I can be on the top of the podium." This confidence and unbending will are also evident in her decision to attempt "Carmen." She does so knowing full well that in the minds of often unforgiving judges she will be measured against both Witt's artistry and Thomas' athleticism, and that her success ultimately could depend on her ability to deliver a performance that is not only unique but superior. Still, Cohen remains undeterred. "Carmen has a lot of my characteristics in it, and I love the music, her attitude, the way she portrays herself, the way she gets what she wants," Cohen said. "She's just out there trying to do her thing." The Odd Couple Cohen's insistence at doing her own thing her own way has frequently clashed with Nicks. Nicks, 72, a former world champion pairs skater for Great Britain, has been a member of the U.S. coaching staff at every Winter Olympics since 1968. He is held in such regard in skating that even today, former pupils now in their 50s, 40s and 30s such as Randy Gardner and Tai Babilonia still address him as "Mr. Nicks." But in Cohen, even Nicks has his hands full. "The Odd Couple," International Figure Skating magazine recently called them. Nicks does not disagree. "It's absolutely abnormal," Nicks said of the relationship. "I've coached over a thousand skaters in the last 40 years and I've never had anything like this. "It's most interesting and most challenging." Make no mistake - Cohen is not a brat; a diva in training. Off the ice she is a typical teen- ager. Well, almost typical. Her favorite class at Aliso Niguel High is economics. The daughter of an American father and a Ukraine- born mother, Cohen was named Alexandra after one of her mother's favorite ballerinas. "Sasha is the Russian nickname for Alexanders and Alexandras," she said. She is an honor roll student who wants to be a fashion designer. She both brags on her young sister Natasha and says she wants a lock on her bedroom door to keep her out. She is quick with a smile and a laugh. She speaks softly, but with an unmistakable firmness. "It's not that I don't want to follow his instructions," Cohen said of Nicks. "It's just that I have my own ideas. I like to push people and I like to push myself." Cohen's desire to "push the edge of the envelope" has led to the pair's most recent debate - whether or not to attempt a quadruple Salchow at the U.S. Championships. For all of Kwan's artistry and the boldness of 1998 Olympic gold medalist Tara Lipinski, women's skating experienced little athletic growth in the 1990s. "Women's content has really not improved in the last eight, 10 years, since (Japan's) Midori Ito and Tonya Harding did triples," Nicks said. "A lot of time you need people to lead. Perhaps the psychological block is 'I'm a lady, I can't do a quad,' and it's not true at all." Even so, Nicks wasn't sure the quad was the right step in breaking new ground. "It wasn't my idea," he said. "Nothing is my idea." As usual, Cohen persisted. "It's something to give me an edge over my competition and a chance to make history," Cohen said of the quad. Cohen seemed on the brink of doing so at October's Skate America, the only U.S. stop on the Grand Prix circuit. She pronounced herself ready by landing a series of quads in pre- competition training sessions in Colorado Springs. "I was just blown away," said U.S. men's champion Timothy Goebel, the first person to land a quadruple Salchow. "Some of her landings were as nice as any I've landed in competition. I was really amazed." But Skate America was also a reminder of the risks of such historic attempts. After bringing the crowd to the edge of their seats by hitting a series of quads in warm-ups, Cohen botched the Salchow seconds into her long program and never recovered. Making the Olympic team and being the first woman to land a quadruple jump are two goals, Nicks said, "that don't go together." The U.S. Championships, he said, is not the time to roll the dice. "It's a gamble," Nicks said, "and I'm a conservative Englishman. I don't like to gamble. "If Sasha skates a clean program, she will make the team. Period. Unfortunately, she doesn't agree with me." Reluctantly, Cohen has agreed to shelve the quad unless she is out of the top three going into the long program. "It's ultimately Mr. Nicks' decision," she said. "I'll do what he says." "But I'm sure we will have several animated conversations about it between now and then," Nicks said laughing. REBOUND from injury There was no discussion when Nicks pulled Cohen out of the 2001 U.S. Championships in Boston. After weeks of skating through almost constant pain, Cohen was diagnosed with a stress fracture of her fifth lumbar five days before the competition. Doctors recommended she stop skating until the injury healed. A day later Cohen got a second opinion from another orthopedic surgeon, who said she could continue training and compete in Boston without risking further damage to the injury. So a skeptical Nicks reluctantly took Cohen to Boston. Seconds into a training session it was clear to Nicks that Cohen was not capable of competing, and he pulled her off the ice. "On important issues," he said, "I do not lose arguments with 16-year- old girls." The back healed and Cohen returned to full training in June. She cut back on the number of jumps she attempted in practice and put more emphasis on strength and off-the-ice training, working religiously with Laguna Hills physical therapist Randy Bauer. "When you're working with a very flexible individual you need to get things stabilized," Bauer said. "Sasha's considerably stronger now." By late summer she was ready to take on "Carmen" and the quad. "I really put it behind me," Cohen said of the back injury. "And I really don't think about it any more." But others in the sport were. Questions, an answer Would she re-emerge as Kwan's primary U.S. threat? Or would she join the parade of young skating stars who have flamed out the sport while still in their teens? "There were a lot of questions about Sasha," Nicks said. There still are. Many in the sport still regard Cohen as the next great American skater, the dominant figure in the post-Kwan era. She has the mix of personality, grace, skill and drive precious few possess, a bold star still capable of capturing the most important title in women's sports - the Olympic ladies figure skating gold medal. "She should be right up there in medal contention," Fleming said. But she was referring to Turin and 2006, not Salt Lake and 2002. Fleming, like many in the sport, question if - because of the injuries - Cohen has enough international experience and background to upstage Kwan and three-time world silver medalist Irina Slutskaya of Russia when the world turns its eyes to Utah next month. "In four years, Sasha will have that experience," Fleming said. Predictably, Cohen sees no need to wait. Sitting in a Salt Lake City hotel last October, she reminded a reporter of the lesson of Nagano nearly four years earlier where Lipinski's aggressive approach was the difference in her triumph over the favorite Kwan for the gold medal. "Tara really did attack out there where you could say Michelle did hold back out there," Cohen said. "I guess I would say I don't hold back. "People are expecting Irina and Michelle to be in those top two spots. Hopefully, the door will open for someone else. "If it does, I'll be ready."