Silver no longer seems satisfying

Silver finally turned to gold last month for Sasha Cohen. Yet as she won her first U.S. figure skating title after four runner-up finishes, the buzz at the arena in St. Louis was about the Olympic status of Michelle Kwan.

"Kwan For Torino," read one fan's placard. "Let Michelle Skate," said buttons worn by others.

Kwan, who sat out nationals with a groin pull, was conditionally named to the Olympic team the same night Cohen won her spot. More recently, Kwan's practice rink performance prompted U.S. Figure Skating to affirm her berth and see her as a medal contender, capable of winning the one major prize that has eluded her, Olympic gold.

But there was another fan sign in St. Louis designed to attract the attention of ABC's cameras: "Always Believe in Cohen."

The Winter Games that open Friday night might finally be the time that rings true, when the 5-2, 95-pound Cohen stands tallest among the world's skaters. She could bring the USA a women's gold for the fourth time in five Olympics.

"I think in St. Louis she established herself as the No.1 American lady and therefore goes to Torino with a shot at a medal and hopefully the gold," says John Nicks, her 76-year-old, British-born coach, who moonlights as a sharp-tongued judge on Fox's Skating With Celebrities.

Alexandra Pauline Cohen, nicknamed Sasha by her Ukrainian-born mother, Galina, has cornered the market on silver. Beyond her previous seconds at nationals, she won silver medals in the last two world championships. Now 21, she and her coach say she has new maturity and focus. Maybe that's what was lacking in the past when she came so close to big titles.

In Torino, she will face the likes of 2005 world champion Irina Slutskaya of Russia, Shizuka Arakawa of Japan, Carolina Costner of Italy -- and, as she has for all of her senior-level competitive life, Kwan.

"Obviously, I'm going in there wanting to win," Cohen said at a news conference after her nationals victory. "My personal best is what my main goal is going to be because then I know no matter what happens that I've done everything I could do."

In a teleconference just before nationals and news conferences during it, Cohen fielded every question, including many about Kwan. "If she's healthy and able to compete, she's definitely one of the strongest to compete for the U.S. at the Olympics," she said.

However, Cohen has declined interviews since nationals. "I am now totally concentrating on my skating," she says in Sasha's Journal on her website (SashaCohen.com).

Nationals were a step toward erasing her image as skating's Phil Mickelson. He was golf's "best player never to win a major" until his 2004 Masters win. Now that Cohen has won a U.S. title, she approaches the ultimate title, Olympic champion.

"She has an exquisite style, an extraordinary ability, and she has been this year putting it together in much greater success without mistakes," says Dick Button, a two-time Olympic champion and an NBC analyst in Italy. "Nobody equals her in positions, in spins. The quality and the ease of her jumps, etc., are extraordinary. All she has to do is complete the moves."

Ballet and athletics

Cohen, whose mother was a ballerina in Ukraine, grew up in Southern California in Laguna Niguel. A promising child gymnast, she switched to skating at 7 after giving it a try with a friend.

Her skating style is a mix of ballet and the same athleticism she had as a gymnast, flexibility and power in a petite package. On the ice, she looks long and elegant.

She will skate her short program to Dark Eyes, a Russian ballad. Her free skate music is from Nino Rota's score for the 1968 film Romeo & Juliet.

"I remember watching the movie (starring) Olivia Hussey, and that's when I fell in love with the music," she says.

But beyond her spirals and spins, she is known for untimely spills. "There are many skaters of equal rank and equal importance that also make slips," Button says. To those who might now be "expecting it" from Cohen, Button says they are missing "the stunning beauty of her skating" and "she's come a long way this fall."

She has had falls of another sort. At the 2004 nationals, she led Kwan after the short program. Two jumping miscues in the free skate left her second. At 2004 worlds she led the short, botched two jumps in the long and was No. 2 again.

This is her second Olympics, maybe her last. She has interests in fashion design or the entertainment industry when her skating is done, but she isn't saying when that might be. "I'm definitely taking one step at a time. I love to skate. I love life," she says.

At 17 in the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, Cohen made news even before the competition. Nothing if not brassy, she was standing next to President Bush at the opening ceremonies. She handed him her cellphone so he could say hi to her mom. It was all seen on television.

Later, she was third after the short program only to two-foot one triple jump and fall on another in the free to finish fourth.

"In 2002, I was really trying to prove myself after missing a year (with back problems) and ... just learning a lot when I was young," Cohen says. "I've learned a lot about myself and how to train and prepare and how to compete. My big weaknesses have been lack of preparation, a lack of knowledge and perhaps not enough confidence and afraid of mistakes. ... I need to stop trying to be perfect and just worry about becoming better."

Cohen, seen in TV ads for Citizen watches, landed a post-nationals guest spot on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno. "I like talking in front of a live audience and in front of cameras," she says in Sasha's Journal.

She comes to Torino on a roll but has had rough times this season. In early October, after winning the Campbell's International Figure Skating Classic in St.Paul, she was looking ahead to the international Grand Prix series. But an Oct.13 fall in practice left her with hip and back pain. She withdrew from the first Grand Prix event, Skate America in Atlantic City in late October.

While recovering, she had a bout with pneumonia. It didn't keep her off the ice. "I would just go nuts if I was at home."

But it slowed her training. When she went to Paris for a Grand Prix event in mid-November, she was second -- that familiar spot -- to Japan's Mao Asada, 15. "I realized there were some things I really needed to add to my training. I needed to become faster, more powerful. I wanted to improve my grade of execution and levels on some elements."

Both are key in the new pile-up-the-points scoring system that replaced the 6.0 system of perfection. Cohen has been working to fine-tune each element of her performance because higher degree of difficulty means more points.

After her November return from Paris, Cohen went to Toronto to work with choreographer David Wilson, especially on her long program. "David was so much fun to work with," Cohen says. "He changed the whole opening of the long program. ... We totally connected."

The weekend before nationals, she was in bed with the flu. But she won by a wide margin over Kimmie Meissner, 16.

"In St. Louis she skated to 90, 95% of her capacity," Nicks says. "If she can just up that in Italy."

All grown up

Nicks, who won world pairs gold for Great Britain in 1953 with his sister Jennifer, is on his second time around as Cohen's coach. He coached her from childhood through the 2002 Olympics. The next summer, she began a quest to elevate her game that turned into a coaching carousel.

She split with Nicks and moved to Connecticut to work with Russian coach Tatiana Tarasova. In early 2004, Cohen switched to Robin Wagner, who coached 2002 Olympic champ Sarah Hughes. That prompted a move to Manhattan, to be near Wagner's Hackensack, N.J., training rink. In December 2004, after coming "to the realization that California is my home," she returned. She lives in Corona del Mar with her mother and sister, Natasha, 17.

She also reunited with the coach she still calls "Mr. Nicks."

"I taught her when she was a little girl, I think 10 or 11, when she would call me Mr. Nicks," he says. "I guess after you've done that, it's sort of difficult to change."

Nicks says their prior relationship was "a little volatile" and his wry humor might have fueled that: "I was probably making some jokes that I shouldn't have been doing, not knowing that she was a younger girl. So I've eased off on that. And I think she's more mature and she puts up with me better than she used to."

Given her intensity, he adds, "Perhaps I lighten things up in a little lighter way."

The serious business here starts with the Feb.21 short program. "I see a young lady at peace with herself ... knowing what she has to do in perhaps a more effective way," Nicks says, and "very confident."

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