The 17-year-old skates a daring, confident program to
finish second at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships.

January 13, 2002

SASHA COHEN of Laguna Niguel finishes in second place
Saturday in the Championship Ladies Free program. Photo:
Chris Carlson/ The Register Los Angeles -- Sasha Cohen
fidgeted nervously as she sat on the edge of the Staples
Center ice, impatient as always. The Laguna Niguel 17-
year- old had been in a hurry since the first day she
laced up a pair of skates, with equal defiance pushing
buttons and the edge of the envelope, always in a rush to
soar with angels. Now Cohen would have to wait with the
rest of a nation.  She sat next to her coach, John Nicks,
having just completed her long program at the U.S. Figure
Skating Championships, both of them anxiously glued to a
TV monitor that would tell her whether a hard road would
deliver her to Salt Lake City. A second set of judges'
marks for presentation flashed across the screen. One of
them was a 5.9, a tenth shy of perfection. Nicks wrapped
his right arm around Cohen and hugged her. "You're on the
Olympic team," Nicks said. Cohen, with a long year of
doubts and a major injury behind her, skated onto the
U.S. Olympic team Saturday night with a daring and
confident program that clearly stamped her as a medal
contender next month in Salt Lake City, Utah. Although
she did not upset four-time world champion Michelle Kwan,
Cohen's solid second-place performance in a competition
that included three of the world's top five skaters from
2001 put her squarely in the Olympic medal picture with
Kwan and Russia's Irina Slutskaya, the World silver
medallist the past two years. "This is really exciting,"
Cohen said. "This has been my dream for a long time. It's
like I've been working so hard that I almost expected to
go and now that it's for sure I'm really excited." Kwan,
21, became the first woman since the 1940s to win six
U.S. titles, putting months of controversy behind her
with an emotional skate that moved her to tears and the
crowd to its feet. "I just had a feeling out there," Kwan
said, "that I haven't had for a while." Kwan and Cohen
will be joined on the Olympic team by another teen-ager
-- Sarah Hughes, the 2001 World bronze medallist. They
leave behind Angela Nikodinov, fifth at the 2001 Worlds.
"What's done is done," Nikodinov said. "I can't take
anything back." Kwan also declined to reflect on the
past. She had faced weeks of second-guessing and
criticism after firing longtime coach Frank Carroll in
October and then struggling through a series of
uninspired performances. But she sensed something special
as soon as she took the ice Saturday night. "You work so
hard," Kwan said, "and you just want to skate with
freedom." She did, skating first, delivering a
performance that drew a pair of 6.0s and a string of 5.9s
for presentation. "I felt the ice," she said. "I felt the
crowd, I felt my feet under me and I just let it go."
Sentimental favorite Nikodinov was up next. She had been
devastated since the November death of her coach, Elena
Tcherkasskaia. Now coached by Carroll, Nikodinov, fourth
after Thursday's short program, was also burdened by the
knowledge that she was a not strong long program skater.
Her fears were realized when she fell early in her
routine. Cohen, skating third in the final group, waited
in the dark behind a blue curtain under the arena's
stands, oblivious to the previous performances. "I'm not
nervous right now," she told Nicks. "I know I don't have
to win; I just can't be fourth." It was only as she
walked down a tunnel to take the ice that she heard
Nikodinov's marks. "They were pretty good," Cohen said
later. "But I knew there was room if I did my job. I
didn't think about winning or getting fourth place. I
just thought about just doing my job." She did just that.
In a long-sleeve black outfit striped by a line of
rhinestones, a red rose in her hair, Cohen skated to
music from the classic opera "Carmen" with a confidence
that belied her age. She cleanly landed six triple jumps
and barely touched the ice with her hand on a seventh. As
they walked back up the tunnel, Nicks squeezed his
pupil's arm one more time. "Mission accomplished," he
said.