Sasha Cohen Update | Golden Skate

Sasha Cohen Update

S

SkateFan4Life

Guest
Attached is a link to a story on Sasha Cohen that appears on the USFSA's website. According to the story, Sasha and her family spent the summer relocating to New York City so they would be closer to her training facility in Hackensack, NJ. Sasha's long program music will be selections from "Nutcracker".

It sounds as though she's not quite in top shape, but she's getting there, and she expects to be in prime shape for US Nationals.

Will this be the year she finally wins the US title??

http://www.usfsa.org/Story.asp?id=27108
 

bronxgirl

Medalist
Joined
Jan 22, 2004
In my opinion, Sasha's problem has never been her physical conditioning, but her uncanny ability to not skate cleanly, even when a title is hers for the taking.
 

Piel

On Edge
Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Just playing devil's advocate here, but......... I think that if my daughter were preparing for a season of elite figure skating I would excuse her from moving duty. If this were Kwan we would be hearing "I guess she thinks it's more important to arrange her new apartment than to prepare her new programs. ANOTHER excuse for not being prepared." :D ;) :D
 

Grgranny

Da' Spellin' Homegirl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
She was on the Today Show this morning. Didn't look too much out of shape to me except her legs looked a bit bigger. I taped it and haven't really watched it yet.
 
S

SkateFan4Life

Guest
bronxgirl said:
In my opinion, Sasha's problem has never been her physical conditioning, but her uncanny ability to not skate cleanly, even when a title is hers for the taking.

Precisely. Sasha Cohen would probably have won the World title had she skated a clean long program, and she might have won at Nationals, had she skated cleanly - with or without Michelle Kwan's outstanding long program.

Cohen simply MUST learn to skate CLEAN programs and eliminate those sloppy errors. She is such a beautiful, talented skater. It has to frustrate the living daylights out of her and Robin Wagner to see her blow golden opportunity after golden opportunity.

I certainly hope she gets it together this season and shows the world how great a skater she is.
 

Lucy25

Final Flight
Joined
Jul 31, 2003
What that article doesn't tell you, is that along with her moving and spider bite, she also vacationed in Italy and California, skated at Sun Valley, attended three Marshall's skate events around the country, shot a commercial and at least one photo shoot. I certainly do not begrudge Sasha any of this, but the article makes it seem as though she is frustrated with the lack of training time because of moving and getting an infected foot. Sasha mentioned in her journals (since last spring) that she planned to go slowly into this new season. With the exception of the spider bite, I think her summer pretty much went as planned. I will be interested to see if this plan works for her.
 

Lucy25

Final Flight
Joined
Jul 31, 2003
Grgranny said:
She was on the Today Show this morning. Didn't look too much out of shape to me except her legs looked a bit bigger. I taped it and haven't really watched it yet.
Wasn't this Sarah Hughes?
 

R.D.

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Grgranny said:
She was on the Today Show this morning. Didn't look too much out of shape to me except her legs looked a bit bigger. I taped it and haven't really watched it yet.

I think you mean Sarah Hughes, she was on the today show. She had a short interview and then she skated at the Rockefeller rink. I taped it.
 

Fossi

Final Flight
Joined
Aug 23, 2003
I don't get it! Didn't Sasha mention practicing 3/3's and quads over the summer? I thought she made mention of it in her journals. It seems they are giving conflicting information. What does a spider bite have to do with anything? She never mentioned this in her journal. Would this trigger the shingles to come back? I don't know much about shingles, but someone said it's triggered by nerves. Could a spider bite trigger it too?
 

gezando

Final Flight
Joined
Jul 30, 2003
Fossi said:
. What does a spider bite have to do with anything? She never mentioned this in her journal. Would this trigger the shingles to come back? I don't know much about shingles, but someone said it's triggered by nerves. Could a spider bite trigger it too?

Spider bite shouldn't have anything to do with shingles. Some spider bites may contain neurotoxins, and shingles is a viral infection. That is all I am going to say since some posters here think only medical professionals can talk about shingles. If I say anything more about shingles I am afraid some poster will cry foul and ask for mommy, I mean daddy.
 
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Joined
Jul 11, 2003
I can talk about Shingles because I had Shingles. It can be a very painful ordeal which usually lasts for 3 weeks. It's rare for it to return after one bout. The cause is a nervous reaction after Chiken Pox which can happen in adult life. Sasha'c case was not common because of her age but it is not unusual.

I certainly sympathized with her during the period she had Shingles, and I don't believe she made it a big news item.

My own opinion of her LP in Dortmund was that she got psyched up the wrong way as she was in the position to be numero uno. I doubt that will happen again. Sasha, for me, is a very determined skater who wants first place and why not?

Joe
 

gezando

Final Flight
Joined
Jul 30, 2003
Joesitz said:
I can talk about Shingles because I had Shingles.
Joe

I too had shingles, but when I talked about my experience some posters here insisted that only people with medical degree can talk about it. In my experience the pain wasn't that bad, I only took tylenol for a few days.
 
Joined
Jul 11, 2003
gezando said:
I too had shingles, but when I talked about my experience some posters here insisted that only people with medical degree can talk about it. In my experience the pain wasn't that bad, I only took tylenol for a few days.

Nowadays a patient finds out as much as he/she can because doctor's don't know everything. I'll speak about my medical problems whenever it is called for, and I will know all about these problerms., and those of people who are dear to me. The internet explains just about everthing.

Sometimes a poster may know a little about a medical problem but a savvy patient knows all about a medical problem.

Joe
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
This is the first I have heard of a spider bite or foot infection. Sasha, in common with many skaters, does not like to dwell on injuries and illness, or to offer such setbacks as excuses.

Mathman
 

LBC

On the Ice
Joined
Aug 3, 2003
Sasha only mentioned shingles in her journal and I don't think any other media outlets mentioned it since she said it after Nats and by Worlds it wasn't news anymore. The spider bite was another thing she said in her journal but as of now the media hasn't gone into any specifics other than an ankle infection. Sasha generally only writes positive things in her journal. If something goes wrong she doesn't write about it as it is happening. People are always saying why didn't she mention shingles before Nats but you don't want to go into a competition looking vulnerable. She had already switched coaches and had a horrible month in December and was looking vulnerable already you don't want to make it worse. You can't give the competition who never thought they had a chance to start thinking they do. Athletes always want to appear strong whether they are or not.
 
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Lucy25

Final Flight
Joined
Jul 31, 2003
LBC said:
Sasha only mentioned shingles in her journal and I don't think any other media outlets mentioned it since she said it after Nats and by Worlds it wasn't news anymore. The spider bite was another thing she said in her journal but as of now the media hasn't gone into any specifics other than an ankle infection. Sasha generally only writes positive things in her journal. If something goes wrong she doesn't write about it as it is happening. People are always saying why didn't she mention shingles before Nats but you don't want to go into a competition looking vulnerable. She had already switched coaches and had a horrible month in December and was looking vulnerable already you don't want to make it worse. You can't give the competition who never thought they had a chance to start thinking they do. Athletes always want to appear strong whether they are or not.

What I have learned from her journals is that she does not give much actual news in them. She offers little tidbits into her life and goings on (her cooking, photo shoots, traveling), but not really the kind of stuff her fans really want (how training is *really* going, what she is working on, her relationship with her coach). I think it's great she puts up a journal in the first place, but when I read responses from her fans on her website, they tend to take all she writes as the real situation, leaving them with the impression that everything is going great. That's why everyone was so shocked about the split from TT. No one knew about the shingles before Nationals, or the flu she had before Lalique. The spider bite and infection was never mentioned until after Campbells. There was no indication that she had asked Robin to train alone for a month. You just have to take the journals for what they are, a peek into the life of an elite athlete.
 

thisthingcalledlove

Final Flight
Joined
Sep 24, 2003
bronxgirl said:
In my opinion, Sasha's problem has never been her physical conditioning, but her uncanny ability to not skate cleanly, even when a title is hers for the taking.

ITA. Worlds AND Nationals 2004 were hers for the taking.
 

Fossi

Final Flight
Joined
Aug 23, 2003
Mathman said:
This is the first I have heard of a spider bite or foot infection. Sasha, in common with many skaters, does not like to dwell on injuries and illness, or to offer such setbacks as excuses.

Mathman

I have to respectfully disagree with this Mathman. If Sasha doesn't use these things as "excuses" then why does she even mention them at all?
If I remember correctly, every time Sasha has a less than inspiring skate, there has always been some reason for it. GPF it was that she had the flu after TL. She wasn't even sick during the GPF, but was used as her excuse). Nationals it was shingles, but she didn't have shingles during Nationals if I am correct. And then now, she is talking about a spider bite she got over the summer.
These sound like lame excuses for poor skating.
Then comes the hype. All the journals and press releases about her practicing hard with Robin over the summer, doing 3/3's and quads for this season. Now she's saying she didn't practice much due to moving? Many skaters moved and don't use this as an excuse. Sarah never hyped her 3/3's. She worked hard and went out and kicked some butt. I don't think the hype is Robin's doing.
You're right about other skaters though. No excuses for their poor skating, and no announcements of their injuries are made.
Look at Shizuka! She skates with a knee bandage sometimes. Look at Irina! She skates with a life threatening illness! Look at Sokolova! Knee injuries, but still skates and makes no mention of a poor skate due to her major injuries.
 
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gezando

Final Flight
Joined
Jul 30, 2003
Joesitz said:
I'll speak about my medical problems whenever it is called for, and I will know all about these problerms., and those of people who are dear to me. The internet explains just about everthing.

Sometimes a poster may know a little about a medical problem but a savvy patient knows all about a medical problem.

Joe

ITA, I was trying to do just talk about my experience as a patient with shingles, but that was met with a lot of hair tearing and crying foul, asking for daddy by some posters.

Anyways, back to spider bites, fortunately most are not too serious, of course bacterial infection complications may happen.
 
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