How will history view Sasha?

[Mathman]

I'm with Jonny Coop.

I think there are two possibilities. If Sasha retires from skating altogether right now, she will be remembered by fans in the same way that Janet Lynn is remembered. She lit up our hearts with an unbroken string of performances of astonishing beauty and grace.

On the other hand (this is more likely, I think), if she goes on to a career in professional show skating with SOI, then she will be remembered on a par with performers like Kristi Yamaguchi, Brian Boitano, Kurt Browning, Yuka Sato, Paul Wylie and Scott Hamilton. Sure, they won some medals in amateur contests, but what we really prize them for is their body of work as professional artists.

JMO.

Mathman

 

[graceness]

I'm with Jonny Coop.

I think there are two possibilities. If Sasha retires from skating altogether right now, she will be remembered by fans in the same way that Janet Lynn is remembered. She lit up our hearts with an unbroken string of performances of astonishing beauty and grace.

On the other hand (this is more likely, I think), if she goes on to a career in professional show skating with SOI, then she will be remembered on a par with performers like Kristi Yamaguchi, Brian Boitano, Kurt Browning, Yuka Sato, Paul Wylie and Scott Hamilton. Sure, they won some medals in amateur contests, but what we really prize them for is their body of work as professional artists.

JMO.


Mathman

I definitely agree with 2nd option, Mathman. So many of the skaters you mention transcended their amateur careers as they developed into wonderful performers. How wonderful if Sasha does that, too.

Janet Lynn, IMO, is in a class by herself. Sasha is an amazingly beautiful skater, but Janet lit up from within and reflected that joy to an entire arena. And with Janet, it was her sparkling personality, too, that set her apart. As someone else mentioned, who can forget the image of her sitting on the ice, during a performance, with a grin on her face?

Graceness

 

[Mathman]

Totally agree about Janet Lynn IMO only Michelle comes close.

Maybe Sasha's many fans will feel the same way about their girl. I hope so.

MM

 

[Mathman]

I forgot to mention --

Ogre Mage, your opening post on this thread was a great bit of writing. It was better written than the article, LOL.

MM

 

[Peggy]

The most beautiful artistic skater of all time. I hope she doesn't quit. Sometimes people have to fall before they can rise again, Sasha has had a series of health and injury issues this year plus all the pressure of expectations on her shoulders so that is enough to make you doubt yourself and make mistakes. Fear of failure is a powerful thing so I hope she pulls herself up by her boot straps next season and gets the medal that is expected for some people to call her worthy of a positive legacy. I know, I will be very lucky if I ever see another skater, in my lifetime, that can match her talent and beauty on the ice.
God bless you, Sasha, in whatever you decide to do.

 

[mzheng]

She will be known to most casual skating fans and probably the media as a choker.

To fans and others who know figure skating, probably a beautiful skater who just didn't have the competitiveness to keep it together.

Come on you are indeed some fans. Call chocker of your own favorates? Oh well.

Back to the topic.

IMO, she will be remembered just as Tara and Sarah will be remembered in the skating world, mostly when MK is refered. That all of them had provided the good competetion to Michelle Kwan during their own peak time.

To skating historian though Tara and Sarah will be mentioned in record book in their own namesake context. If Sasha stop competetion now. She has to go on to Hollywood, fashion design, facial model, etc. makes name for herself in those eareas (she has better chance in those earea than either Tara or Sarah.). Until then she will have her name mentioned in her own namesake context.

What she said that she still searching that moment she can put herself in auto pilot and living in the moment....I still think that moment escaped her because she is not as SOLID in basics (edge controles) as other top ladies (Shizuka, Irina, Michelle). That's why when the pressue is on, all the good basic escaped her, unless she REALLY focus on the basics, which takes away the PERFOMANCE level.

 

[mzheng]

I agree with those who said that Sasha's missfortune is that she had to compete against one of the greatest and most consistent of all times. She gave good performances at Nationals, but Michelle was there. When she managed to skate( well, not great, but still) good she couldnt win the world title because someone else had skated better. Irina has so many european titles(7!!!!), yet she wasnt always perfect.

:

I agree this. In the same context, that's why she can't be called one of the greatest skaters. If she is one of the greatest, then you'd at least expect ONCE she is able to rise to the occation, no matter the competetive fields.

 

[Lucy25]

I guess it depends on who is doing the remembering. The general public, if they remember her at all, will remember a very pretty and flexible skater who could not put it together when it counted. Sorry, but we live in a very competitive society and unfortunately people are known more for their losses than their successes. If people call Michelle Kwan a choker, they will call Sasha a choker x 100. The general public would have voted her off the island a long time ago.

Skating fans will remember Sasha for her line, technique and beautiful spins and spirals. They will feel badly that she never (at least up to now) could win the big ones.

I personally would never call Sasha an artist. Her presentation on the ice is amazing, but an artist is someone like Sandu, Browning, and Kwan (in her earlier years) who choose unique music and tried to interpret it for the audience. An artist (to me) does not continually incorporate the same moves into very overused music. An artist creates. Just my opinion.

 

[Lucy25]

I agree this. In the same context, that's why she can't be called one of the greatest skaters. If she is one of the greatest, then you'd at least expect ONCE she is able to rise to the occation, no matter the competetive fields.

Agreed

 

[Alsace]

The biggest difference between looking back at Sasha's career and Janet Lynn's is that there are several sparklingly clean LP performances of Lynn's career; not so in Sasha's.

You can only stand to watch the short program, with its "eight required elements" so long, though Sasha's greatest performances were in the short.

 

[dancindiva03]

As a gumby little headcase with a poor attitude.

 

[LBC]

People make it sound like Sasha is dead and this is her obituary. You don't know till 20 yrs. from now how somebody will be remembered. How somebody is thought of today can be different in the future. She hasn't hung up her skates yet. I think she could become a much better skater as a pro than she ever was as an elgible. A skaters exhibtion can be more remembered than any competition program they ever did. 22 yrs. later I don't remember any of Scott Hamilton's elgible skates including the olympics. I remember the costume but I don't remember what music he skated to or what he did. I remember a lot of the programs he did as a pro though. His pro career was longer than his elgible one. Visability has a lot with being remembered as well. Dick Button being a commentator has made him a memory for several generations who never saw him skate.

We have no idea what Sasha will do in the future. She's only 21 and her competitive skating career will be a very small part of her entire life. She will be a National Champion forever. Her name will be on that trophy. She can show the grandkids that olympic silver medal and they will be in awe. I myself got to see an olympic silver medal from an older gentleman who was a friend of my mothers. I forget the year somewhere in the 20's I think as he was in his 80's and this was 20 yrs. ago. He was a soccer player from Denmark. He had pictures of him and his team and the medal in a case. I was in awe. Hard to imagine this old man being a great athlete in his youth. An olympian wow.
Sasha may not be remembered as one of the great ones but to friends and family in the future she was the olympian who won a medal and they will be proud.

 

[Ptichka]

I agree with Mathman. Chances are even if Sasha retires from eligible competition she'll skate with SOI or at least COI. In that case, her future will be entirely in her hands. I'd say that Sasha's resume is already better than Yuka Sato's - while Yuka did become a world champ in '94, Sasha has an Olympic medal and not 1 but 3 World medals. And Yuka Sato is not forgotten!

 

[R.D.]

People make it sound like Sasha is dead and this is her obituary. You don't know till 20 yrs. from now how somebody will be remembered. How somebody is thought of today can be different in the future. She hasn't hung up her skates yet. I think she could become a much better skater as a pro than she ever was as an elgible. A skaters exhibtion can be more remembered than any competition program they ever did. 22 yrs. later I don't remember any of Scott Hamilton's elgible skates including the olympics. I remember the costume but I don't remember what music he skated to or what he did. I remember a lot of the programs he did as a pro though. His pro career was longer than his elgible one. Visability has a lot with being remembered as well. Dick Button being a commentator has made him a memory for several generations who never saw him skate.

We have no idea what Sasha will do in the future. She's only 21 and her competitive skating career will be a very small part of her entire life. She will be a National Champion forever. Her name will be on that trophy. She can show the grandkids that olympic silver medal and they will be in awe. I myself got to see an olympic silver medal from an older gentleman who was a friend of my mothers. I forget the year somewhere in the 20's I think as he was in his 80's and this was 20 yrs. ago. He was a soccer player from Denmark. He had pictures of him and his team and the medal in a case. I was in awe. Hard to imagine this old man being a great athlete in his youth. An olympian wow.
Sasha may not be remembered as one of the great ones but to friends and family in the future she was the olympian who won a medal and they will be proud.

you know what, you've got a good point. We can only speculate how we THINK she might be remembered, but you never know. Same with Kwan, actually BTW.

 

[scatterak]

How will history remember her? No idea.

Me? I've never been a huge Sasha fan, and no, I don't hate her. But she's never been sincere on the ice, to me. I think if she wasn't a medal-chaser, she might actually enjoy the sport. In all of her programs, I either see arrogance or very fake, exagerated acting to cover things up.

I'm going to remember a flexible, over-rated skater that thank too much to ever succeed. I'm going to remember someone I wished would shape up because she could have been great.

What was with her tidbit at World's where she wouldn't stop talking on how she was going to change society. wtf? "Society always looks at bad things!" "Society sucks!" "I'm going to change society!" "Society this blah blah blah."

She had potential, but I think she's better off in front of camera's, where she's obviously more at home.

 

[Kelly22]

Aside from the spills, I thought her skating technique was exquisite. Exquisite skating and a beautiful face. But I don't find that extra special something that all champions possess - it's the heart, the joy and the passion....deep inside. Think Kwan, Yagudin, Hamilton - they all had "it", especially Yagudin and Hamilton. It is something from deep within that one is born with. Shasha never had the "it" factor, on or off ice. She comes across as very one dimensional. So unless Sasha continues, she'll be remembered as the amazing spiral with a pretty face...that's it.

I hope she continues, lets the demons go, and grows into a more well rounded skating person.

 

[Lanie]

What was with her tidbit at World's where she wouldn't stop talking on how she was going to change society. wtf? "Society always looks at bad things!" "Society sucks!" "I'm going to change society!" "Society this blah blah blah."

I think she was being sarcastic. Or trying to be.

 

[anniemg]

Aside from the spills, I thought her skating technique was exquisite. Exquisite skating and a beautiful face. But I don't find that extra special something that all champions possess - it's the heart, the joy and the passion....deep inside. Think Kwan, Yagudin, Hamilton - they all had "it", especially Yagudin and Hamilton. It is something from deep within that one is born with. Shasha never had the "it" factor, on or off ice. She comes across as very one dimensional. So unless Sasha continues, she'll be remembered as the amazing spiral with a pretty face...that's it.

I hope she continues, lets the demons go, and grows into a more well rounded skating person.

IMO Sasha did have the 'it' factor in a few programs in her career so far, which were not, of course, important lp programs. 2004 SP(she was ON FIRE), 2003(i think) Romeo and Juliet at the Canadian Sears Open, and 2005 Marshalls Romeo and Juliet .There, she absolutely gave her heart to skating, and it did come from deep within. In almost all her other programs, she's trying to show that, but because she's nervous it doesnt show. She's got so much more to give, I'd hate it if she would retire.

 

[antmanb]

I'm with Jonny Coop.

I think there are two possibilities. If Sasha retires from skating altogether right now, she will be remembered by fans in the same way that Janet Lynn is remembered. She lit up our hearts with an unbroken string of performances of astonishing beauty and grace.

On the other hand (this is more likely, I think), if she goes on to a career in professional show skating with SOI, then she will be remembered on a par with performers like Kristi Yamaguchi, Brian Boitano, Kurt Browning, Yuka Sato, Paul Wylie and Scott Hamilton. Sure, they won some medals in amateur contests, but what we really prize them for is their body of work as professional artists.

JMO.

Mathman

Ok i know i said i woudn't be mean about skaters but to put Cohen in a list with Yuka Sato i think is a insult to Yuka who is possibly the best purest skater in the world - her edges and movements are to die for. Sasha could skate for another 20 years and never have that level of basic skating that Yuka has...i don't think there's many people in the world who could ever touch Yuka...there is one but i'll leave her out of it!!!

Ant

 

[Joesitz (RIP)]

LBC - Wonderful little story about an Olympic medalist. There is a certain pride they have in their lives and I hate when posters denigrate Michelle for never winning the gold.

All medalists of whatever color will cherish their accomplishments for what they gave to the world on that memorable night. Sasha will have her memories and years from now they will be still be happy memories to be shared with new friends and children,

Joe