TURIN, Italy – Michelle Kwan is too hurt to skate and by Vancouver in 2010 probably will be too old. So just as it presumably now becomes Sasha Cohen’s turn, we can never find out whether it was about to become her time anyway.
“I wouldn’t say that there is relief,” she said yesterday morning about the nine-time U.S. champion’s tall shadow and Cohen’s long obsession with it. “I’m used to answering questions and of all the questions, the Michelle questions are not the hardest. I’ve learned to shift my focus away from other people and onto myself. I know it’s disappointing to have to withdraw. I know how tough it is to come back from injury. It was great she tried, but things don’t always work out and, in a way, it kind of humanizes the sport.
“She’s been an icon. We’ve always seen her hard edge competing and doing well, and to see that people at the top can have hard times humanizes it. There are good times and bad times and you have to persevere.”
Three coaching changes and four years later, this is not the same Cohen who buzzed her opponents during warm-ups, who as a 15-year-old in 2000 almost beat Kwan at the nationals and then wanted it all and fast. She didn’t get it at Salt Lake City where, in her mind, in her first Olympics, she busted at fourth behind Sarah Hughes, Irina Slutskaya and Kwan.
This Sasha Cohen has added muscle, added perspective, and dumped all the luggage that set her up for the spectacular falls for which she became known. Last month at the nationals in St. Louis, she had a cold heavier than
the competition and, skating only to her own standards, never skated better.
“I was very proud of myself to be able to come through without having practiced at all that week,” she said. “It showed me how much I had in me.
“I’m in a completely different place now. Four years ago, I came into my first major international being very nervous, not understanding training and tapering and how to handle international competition. I was going to win the Olympics and that was it.
“I’ve learned how to better prepare, physically, mentally and emotionally. What thoughts to think, what not to think. How to warm up, when to get off.
“I’ve always been a great competitor. Now, I’ve learned to work on working and not be overly thoughtful of the result.”
Cohen has a legitimate chance at the gold medal she is not even thinking about. Her concentration is on the work, not the rewards, because she has come to consider the work the actual reward.
“I want to enjoy the process,” she said. “I haven’t worked four years of my life to close a chapter and maybe enjoy 20 minutes at a ceremony and three days of publicity, then hang that medal on my wall and not be happy until I win again.
“I’m striving to enjoy each day, not so much the destination. That’s really helped me to soak it up, have a great time. I want to skate great and the way to do that is take the pressure off and enjoy it.
“Everyone has a different trajectory of when they peak. I’m really confident and proud of my progress and improvement. I want to skate my best and each year I have learned more about how to make that happen.”
Kwan is yesterday’s news. Might have been anyway, after all Sasha Cohen has learned.