Cohen Still Considering 2010 Games.......

[museksk8r]

She's a great skater who has changed the ladies' way of skating forever. Without Sasha, we probably have to endure the same old sloppy female skaters on ice with bad posture.

You're giving Sasha WAY TOO MUCH credit where posture is concerned. Peggy Fleming influenced skaters who followed her in the areas of grace, posture, and artistry long before anyone knew who Sasha Cohen was. She's not the 1st skater to ever display lovely posture and carriage across the ice. Sasha basically popularized flexibility moves that Nicole Bobek had already done. She is not the inventor of so many beautiful positions like her crazed fans make her out to be. Get a grip on reality for goodness sake!

 

[NansXOXOX]

She's a great skater who has changed the ladies' way of skating forever. Without Sasha, we probably have to endure the same old sloppy female skaters on ice with bad posture.

Do you honestly believe this? Good posture certainly didn't begin with Cohen. Just to name a few, try watching Heiss, Flemming, Ito, Lynn, Sato, Yamaguchi, Thomas, Albright, Bobek and Hamill.

 

[museksk8r]

Do you honestly believe this? Good posture certainly didn't begin with Cohen. Just to name a few, try watching Heiss, Flemming, Ito, Lynn, Sato, Yamaguchi, Thomas, Albright, Bobeck and Hamill.

Thank you! Yes, a serious reality check is in order for anyone who thinks artistry began with Sasha Cohen.

 

[Kasey]

She's a great skater who has changed the ladies' way of skating forever. Without Sasha, we probably have to endure the same old sloppy female skaters on ice with bad posture.

Oh yes. Now we get to see a bunch of female skaters try to contort themselves into gumby-esque, inhuman positions....generally, with bad posture. Yay, thanks.

 

[scorekeeper]

OK, let’s review what we have learned in this thread.

1) Sasha can not return to competitive skating.
2) She is not a particularly good show skater.
3) She can not make a career out of acting.
4) She is not articulate enough to do commentary.
5) She is not sincere in her stated desires.

Very well then. Is there anything that we, the posters on this board, believe that Sasha is good at? Is there anything we believe she can make a living at? :sheesh:

Baking cookies.

 

[Medusa]

I don't think anyone is bashing Sasha. Most of us are just saying she was unable to get a significant gold medal when she looked like should could.

I am probably an Anti-fan of Miss Cohen - but this

Originally Posted by PolymerBob View Post
OK, let’s review what we have learned in this thread.

1) Sasha can not return to competitive skating.
2) She is not a particularly good show skater.
3) She can not make a career out of acting.
4) She is not articulate enough to do commentary.
5) She is not sincere in her stated desires.

Very well then. Is there anything that we, the posters on this board, believe that Sasha is good at? Is there anything we believe she can make a living at?

is bashing. That makes her sound like the biggest loser on the planet - it actually makes us sound like losers, because I can't do either of those things mentioned above and I still think that I am a happy person. It also makes us sound spiteful and jealous.

Perhaps she wants to go to college, even university... Perhaps she can get married to a wealthy man, have children and become a really happy woman. Or she could write a book. She doesn't have to be a public figure to be happy / satisfied / wealthy. She could even become a better show-skater, two seasons skating shows is not much - perhaps she can improve.

And she may not have been the French revolution of figure skating, but I think she still had lots of success and enriched the sport in her own way.

 

[PolymerBob]

Just to clarify, I did not say I agreed with any of those statements. In fact, they may all turn out to be wrong.

 

[Mathman]

I took Polymer Bob's post to be sarcasm -- as in, come on, everybody, give the girl a break!

Sasha is beautiful, 23 years old, healthy (in fact, healthy in the way that only trained athletes are healthy), a world renowned master of her craft, a successful entertainer, a celebrity (OK, she's not Britny Spears -- thank goodness) and roll model for young people. She has world and Olympic medals in her sport and an enthusiastic fan base that has stuck with her through thick or thin.

I wish I had any one of those things.

BTW, Sasha has written a book. I have no doubt she will marry a rich man (unless she falls in love with a poor one). I think she is perfectly sincere in her goal, which is to take life as it comes for the moment, not to close any doors prematurely, and to see what happens.

As a skater, even when she made mistakes she still brought ohs and ahs from the crowd, and she still does on the Stars on Ice tour.

You don't like Sasha? Oh, gosh -- and she says such nice things about YOU!

 

[tarotx]

I don't think Sasha can come back to win a major or make the US olympic team and that would be the main reasons she would try. She could come back to skate 2 back to back great programs but she could do that on SOI. I wished she would start to train to be the best pro skater she could be. That is my hope for her future.

Sasha doesn't skate pro numbers yet-she's still skating exhibitions. She needs to be around the other pros a while to get the difference. This is her real first year skating on the pro tour. I would actually recommend her to watch older pro masterpieces.

I think Sasha needs a lot of practice and training to be a good actress. If she would stop trying to be great I think she could be a decent one. I don't think this should be her career goal though.

If Sasha relaxed and would be her self she might be good at commentating. A little voice coaching would help as well. Which I hope she gets because I think her goal in life should be to host/co host one of those almost talk shows where there could be cooking, nutrition talk, travel, shopping, fashion design stuff, exercising and skating/women in sport talk and maybe perhaps some skating by her and/or a guest. If Sasha's real ambition (like a lot of people accuse of her) is to be famous I think she would have a better chance at it to do this type thing then to get big enough roles for her ego. I wish her main goal would be to be one of the great pro skaters and branch out from there like the greats before her.

I think Sasha is asked about the 2010 Olympics and isn't the one to bring it up. I think Sasha has to know that she'll have a hard time being competitive even if she returned as her 2002-2006 self.

 

[netnuts]

Do you honestly believe this? Good posture certainly didn't begin with Cohen. Just to name a few, try watching Heiss, Flemming, Ito, Lynn, Sato, Yamaguchi, Thomas, Albright, Bobek and Hamill.

Of course I believe this. All the skaters you listed probably were graceful for their eras, but they really were miles behind Sasha in terms of good stretch, flexibility and grace. Sasha Cohen basically revolutionized ladies skating... I certainly believe she has contributed more to FS than multi-medal winners such as MK and Irina....

 

[Joesitz (RIP)]

Of course I believe this. All the skaters you listed probably were graceful for their eras, but they really were miles behind Sasha in terms of good stretch, flexibility and grace. Sasha Cohen basically revolutionized ladies skating... I certainly believe she has contributed more to FS than multi-medal winners such as MK and Irina....

Are you old enough to remember Henie? While I am not a fan of Henie, I give her full credit for revolutionizing figure skating to the masses. It seems from what you say that you have no idea of lady figure skaters before Kwan and Slutskaya. Not good to make superlative statements about a little girl who in all fairness had flexibility as her big commitment to figure skating, but if you knew the past, Belita, too had the same in the Sonia Henie era. Many skaters at that time said Belita was better than Sonia.

If you are not limited to Ladies figure skating and can think of the Men in figure skating, what about Lutz, Salchow, Rittenberg, Paulsen, and the guy that put music to what your love, Jackson Haines. Not revolutionaires with grace?

Joe

Joe

 

[Medusa]

Who is old enough to remeber Henie? :scratch:

But it's a bit strange to say that Cohen had more influence on the sport than Kwan... Kwan was quite flexible - and what Cohen was so famous for (the spiral) looked much more enjoyable and less painless done by Kwan than done by Cohen.

Cohen didn't even try to have the same impact as Kwan. Kwan skated so well to different styles of music for such a long time - the influence she had on the current style among the ladies is surely hard to beat.

 

[museksk8r]

Of course I believe this. All the skaters you listed probably were graceful for their eras, but they really were miles behind Sasha in terms of good stretch, flexibility and grace. Sasha Cohen basically revolutionized ladies skating... I certainly believe she has contributed more to FS than multi-medal winners such as MK and Irina....

:chorus::disagree:

 

[GoldMedalist]

Who is old enough to remeber Henie? :scratch:

Joe, apparently.

 

[NansXOXOX]

Of course I believe this. All the skaters you listed probably were graceful for their eras, but they really were miles behind Sasha in terms of good stretch, flexibility and grace.

You didn't say graceful, you said:

Without Sasha, we probably have to endure the same old sloppy female skaters on ice with bad posture.

Stretch, flexibility and grace may co-exist with posture, but they are not the same. Dick Buton, who has forgotten more about the sport of figure skating than most of us will ever know, has gushed over Dorothy Hamill's posture for decades. Peggy Flemming was the model of grace on ice.

You also stated:

She's a great skater who has changed the ladies' way of skating forever.

and

Sasha Cohen basically revolutionized ladies skating... I certainly believe she has contributed more to FS than multi-medal winners such as MK and Irina....

Please name one original thing Cohen contributed to the sport of figure skating. You can not be considered revolutionary or be credited with changing anything "forever," including a sport, without contributing something original.

 

[dizzydi7]

Sasha

Holy Cow.....no one brings out controversy like Sasha.

I've followed figure skating for 40 years and I believe Sasha Cohen is a treasure. I do believe that she influenced figure skating. Many skaters have tried to emulate her lovely posture, grace and flexibility.

Michelle Kwan is an awesome skater whose competitive record has never been matched and probably never will be surpassed. Personally, I don't see Kwan as a skater who skated to all kinds of music. She is a skater who skated to basically classical music throughout her career and showed little versatility. Sure she skated to Field of Gold but with in much the same way she skated to every other piece of music.

This is how I see it.

Dizzy

 

[netnuts]

Holy Cow.....no one brings out controversy like Sasha.

I've followed figure skating for 40 years and I believe Sasha Cohen is a treasure. I do believe that she influenced figure skating. Many skaters have tried to emulate her lovely posture, grace and flexibility.

Michelle Kwan is an awesome skater whose competitive record has never been matched and probably never will be surpassed. Personally, I don't see Kwan as a skater who skated to all kinds of music. She is a skater who skated to basically classical music throughout her career and showed little versatility. Sure she skated to Field of Gold but with in much the same way she skated to every other piece of music.

This is how I see it.

Dizzy

Kudos!! Yup, Sasha. :agree:

Kwan. :banging::disagree::scowl:

 

[museksk8r]

Kwan showed tons more versatility than Cohen ever did and that's a fact! We never saw Sasha challenge herself with a departure program like The Beatles' "A Day In The Life", Eric Clapton's "Rush" soundtrack, or "The Miraculous Mandarin." Michelle was the first skater I ever saw perform to "Romanza", "Salome", "Dream of Desdemona", "Taj Mahal", "Lyra Angelica", "Lamento d'Ariane", "The Red Violin", "Song of the Black Swan", and "Concierto de Aranjuez."

Sasha stuck to the classics of figure skating that had been done tons times over . . . where was the originality in anything Sasha ever skated to? Sasha never challenged herself or took risks with her musical choices. She always played it safe in that aspect.

 

[R.D.]

Never found either of them particularly inventive.

How's that for an argument settler?

here's how I break it down: One was able to bring it when it counted, save the Olympics and the last two years of her career; the other appeared to be promising but got lost in the hype and later on, in the talk of "will she be clean this time".

 

[icejunkie]

Never found either of them particularly inventive.

How's that for an argument settler?

here's how I break it down: One was able to bring it when it counted, save the Olympics and the last two years of her career; the other appeared to be promising but got lost in the hype and later on, in the talk of "will she be clean this time".

Ditto. Neither was very inventive.

I think of the two, Kwan has the edge. Earlier in her career she skated to very different music, but later on it got very boring. And how many times did we see Sasha skate to "Dark Eyes" in variation?