What if Sasha Cohen skips Worlds? | Page 2 | Golden Skate

What if Sasha Cohen skips Worlds?

Joined
Jun 21, 2003
orchid said:
No doubt about it, the USFSA will encourage Sasha to attend the World Championship.
But with an Olympic gold medal in her pocket and a lucrative pro career beckoning, Sasha may not care what the USFSA encourages.
 

orchid

On the Ice
Joined
Oct 28, 2004
Mathman said:
But with an Olympic gold medal in her pocket and a lucrative pro career beckoning, Sasha may not care what the USFSA encourages.

Surely, she will want to leave somewhat a positive legacy, and not walk away as Tara did.
 

*~RussianBleux~*

Medalist
Joined
Oct 23, 2005
STL_Blues_fan said:
I don't believe that Sasha would skip Worlds out of "fear". If she wins the Olympic medal and decides to stay home it will be from a great sence of relief that all the hard work has paid off. Well, I can't speak for Sasha, but I don't think you are in a possition to say that she is "afraid to loose it". Is Sasha wins that gold (and I am rooting for Irina) it will not be a fluke. Tara winning that gold was not a fluke either. Sarah is debatable. And btw, Sarah did come back to 2003 Worlds.

I'm pretty positive that a clean Irina would beat a clean Sasha any day(and a lot of that may because she is "held up"), especially in Turin. Basically I feel that Sasha doesn't have a chance unless Irina is flawed and she is absolutely perfect. Likely? No. So if it does happen, it may seem "flukish" because it isn't a likely turn of events at all. I'm not saying it would be a complete fluke. In that event, Sasha may realize this about why she won the Olympic gold medal and opt to skip worlds if Irina is competing because certainly if Irina is perfect at worlds Sasha is done for, OGM or not. You're right though, I'm not Sasha so I can't just sit here and say what she is planning on doing and how she feels. This is just my prediction. I see Sasha making the same decisions as Tara Lipinski made, in the event that she wins the OGM.
 

Ogre Mage

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 30, 2003
STL_Blues_fan said:
. Is Sasha wins that gold (and I am rooting for Irina) it will not be a fluke. Tara winning that gold was not a fluke either. Sarah is debatable. And btw, Sarah did come back to 2003 Worlds.
Sasha goes into the Olympics as a 2-time World Silver Medalist and reigning U.S. Nats Champ, so a Gold Medal would not be a fluke. Tara, like you said, was not a fluke either -- she entered Nagano as the reigning World Champ and 1997 U.S. Nats Champ. Sarah, I would say, WAS a fluke, because she never did as well before or since.
 
S

SkateFan4Life

Guest
OK, I've readjusted my thinking on this......I think Sasha should stay in the eligible ranks at least to compete at the Worlds this year. The US needs her presence to assure (hopefully) a three-woman World team in 2007, and to also avoid being shut out of the medals at Worlds this year. The US women have always been strong, and there have been just a handful of years in recent memory in which at least one American woman hasn't medaled at Worlds. The last time that happened was in 1994. Tonya Harding was kicked off the team, Nancy Kerrigan skipped Worlds, and that left Michelle Kwan to pretty much carry the bag for the US. She was only 13 at the time, and she skated very well to finish eighth to assure the US a 2-woman World Team for 1995.
 

attyfan

Custom Title
Medalist
Joined
Mar 1, 2004
Just out of curiosity -- if Sasha did decide to skip Worlds, could the USFSA send Michelle along with Emily and Kimmie, even if she didn't petition? Or, would they have to send three new faces?
 

euterpe

Medalist
Joined
Sep 4, 2003
A federation can send anyone they choose to Worlds, so if Sasha skipped, the USFS could substitute Kwan, if they wanted, and if she was willing. But "could" doesn't necessarily mean "would".
 

orchid

On the Ice
Joined
Oct 28, 2004
SkateFan4Life said:
OK, I've readjusted my thinking on this......I think Sasha should stay in the eligible ranks at least to compete at the Worlds this year. The US needs her presence to assure (hopefully) a three-woman World team in 2007, and to also avoid being shut out of the medals at Worlds this year. The US women have always been strong, and there have been just a handful of years in recent memory in which at least one American woman hasn't medaled at Worlds. The last time that happened was in 1994. Tonya Harding was kicked off the team, Nancy Kerrigan skipped Worlds, and that left Michelle Kwan to pretty much carry the bag for th
e U
S. She was only 13 at the time, and she skated very well to finish eighth to assure the US a 2-woman World Team for 1995.

Exactly right!
Whether or not Sasha will stay or go is ?????? She may react as a deer with a hunter in her rearview mirror, or at last, listen to Mr. Nicks and skate as she can.

We saw one, just one performance, only one. Nothing there tells me she can repeat a win, even at that level.

So, if she earns a medal of some color, will she have the muster to try for a Gold at Worlds? Big question. Is she hungry for a legacy or one National gold (minus Kwan) and an Oly?

Only Cohen can answer this.
 
S

SkateFan4Life

Guest
orchid said:
Surely, she will want to leave somewhat a positive legacy, and not walk away as Tara did.

Well, we need to remember that Tara Lipinski was injured during the fall of 1997, and she competed at Nagano with that injury. This infomation was kept secret from the media, judges, officials, and the general public. Certainly, Tara skated as though she was 100 percent physically fit. However, we learned that she was, indeed, injured, and she probably felt that she could not successfully defend her World title with that injury.

Another scenario, of course, is that Tara did not want to take the chance of tarnishing her Olympic victory by competing at Worlds and being defeated by Michelle and/or other skaters
.
 
Joined
Jul 11, 2003
It's nobody's business but Sasha.

I think she would like to have a Worlds gold medal but it would be anticlimatic after the Olympics. Let Sasha decide what to do. She may even go for 2010.

Joe
 
S

SkateFan4Life

Guest
Joesitz said:
It's nobody's business but Sasha.

I think she would like to have a Worlds gold medal but it would be anticlimatic after the Olympics. Let Sasha decide what to do. She may even go for 2010.

Joe

Of course, in the final analysis, it's Sasha's decision. We're all in the peanut gallery, giving our sage advice, but she's the one who has to live with her decision, whatever it is.
 

soogar

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 18, 2003
euterpe said:
Why would Sasha "do the right thing"? Tara and Sarah didn't. In fact, at SLC< Sarah announced she was going to go to Worlds and "represent my country", but she was too tired from the whirl of parties and celebrations and informed the USFS less than two weeks before Worlds that she wasn't going. Think she was running scared of being beaten? You'd better believe she was!

My thoughts are that Sarah wanted to go to worlds, but once the hoopla set in with all the interviews and special evetns, she probably realized at the last minute that she wasn't going to fit in the training time to do well at Worlds. Alexei was able to handle everything very well, but he's not American so even though there was a lot of attention and interviews for him, it wasn't nearly as much as it was for the American ladies OGM.

I think that if Michelle had won an OGM, she probably would have skipped out on worlds as well. It's not as if a silver and bronze medalist makes as many rounds to the Oscars and Grammys as the OGM.

And I would be very surprised to see Sasha at Worlds. Her body and what little are left of her nerves are going to give out right after the Olympics. She needs to spare herself that stress and start eating normally and taking care of her health.
 
S

SkateFan4Life

Guest
I would like to see Sasha take one more run at winning the World title. If she does win gold at Torino, perhaps she can ride the momentum of that victory into the Worlds and win the gold medal there as well.

If I remember this correctly, Dorothy Hamill remained in Europe after winning gold at Innsbruck. She trained hard, maintained a relatively low profile, and then won her first and only World title in Sweden. Dorothy then returned home to the US as "America's Sweetheart".

There's a lesson there for Sasha, IMHO. Forget the spotlight, the celebrity stuff, and just train and skate between the Olympics and Worlds. It's only one month, for Pete's sakes. She will have a lifetime to reap the rewards of her victories.
 

bloozywoozy

Rinkside
Joined
May 17, 2005
Worlds

I'm curious...does anyone know how many Oly winners chose to go right onto Worlds after their Oly win? I remember Alexei saying how he wanted to rest after Olys but he ( or was it Tatiana?) pushed himself to go? (And thank goodness that he did go! lol:clap: )
 

rob43

On the Ice
Joined
Nov 1, 2005
I think Michelle would have shown up to Worlds in both '98 and '02 had she won. It's just her nature (and '02 was also a chance to tie a US record). I think Sarah should have gone in '02 because that was an excellent shot for her to take it since Kwan and Irina were mentally burned out & had been through the 2nd half of that season.

As for Sasha- I believe she wants every title she can get her hands on. If she win Oly and Worlds I think she'll declare her career complete then and their but if she has a possible World Championship looming I frimly believe she'll go for it.

I almost think if Sasha skips out, Katie will be our #1 bet even though she's the alternate. She just seems to love to compete & has a killer instinct.
 

sk8addict

On the Ice
Joined
Oct 22, 2004
Not

I don't think Sasha will skip Worlds. She is well trained and skating beautifully. Why would she not want another world medal whichever it is. This Sashist would be very sad not to see her there.
 

ladysarahchatto

On the Ice
Joined
Jan 18, 2006
Ogre Mage said:
I think that barring injury, Sasha will skate at Worlds 2006, regardless of where she places in Turin. Like Joesitz says, she wants a World Title and you have to believe the USFSA will be encouraging her to go so they can secure 3 spots for next year. Especially given that Irina probably will NOT go to Worlds this year, it would be a golden opportunity for Sasha.

Sasha said she would be there. I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt. Th
 
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