Sasha Cohen withdraws fomr Skate America
- Thread starter kwanzone2006
- Start date
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2003
With both US ladies out, it does open the door for a goldmedalist getting 14? points towards the Grand Prix Final. It's an interesting lineup of Poykio, Ota, Ando, Nikidinov and the ever popular Liashenko. And Onda in Canada. Let's see what affects this year's GP has.
Here's hoping Cohen and Kwan have speedy recoveries. I will miss them.
Joe
Here's hoping Cohen and Kwan have speedy recoveries. I will miss them.
Joe
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2004
Now add to the list of withdrawals & injuries:
Timchenko
Petrova/Tihonov
Viktoria Pavuk (an hour after she received her GP assignment to COR, ankle injury practicing an axel off ice, and is in a cast.)
Timchenko
Petrova/Tihonov
Viktoria Pavuk (an hour after she received her GP assignment to COR, ankle injury practicing an axel off ice, and is in a cast.)
Oh my. This is bad news indeed. I wondered when I first heard the news if perhaps the withdrawal was due more to her not feeling sufficiently trained after the Campbell's disappointment, and less to an actual injury. That would seem not to be the case. I still hope they are erring on the side of caution and that this isn't something that could derail her entire season. That could be disastrous in the pre-Olympic year. (It would seem she'll be out of the GP for sure.)
Boy, bet the USFSA is shaken. The bloom is certainly off the SA rose, but let's hope the open door will spur the remaining competitors to seize the opportunity. Perhaps Angela and her exquisite layback will be back in the spotlight!
Boy, bet the USFSA is shaken. The bloom is certainly off the SA rose, but let's hope the open door will spur the remaining competitors to seize the opportunity. Perhaps Angela and her exquisite layback will be back in the spotlight!
Sasha was signed up for two events only: Skate America and Cup of China. I don't see how she can do CoC either--it's only 3 weeks from now, and she can't do triple jumps for four weeks.
I think she strained her back because she basically took the summer off, then went apartment hunting and moved, and she hardly trained at all. It was clear at Campbell's that she was no where near in competition shape, and she probably tried too hard to make up for the time off in the 3 weeks between Campbell's and SA.
I'd say she is without a doubt entirely out of the GP.
I don't think that's such a bad thing. The GPF is in China, December 16-19, just 3 weeks before US Nationals. It's a long plane trip going and coming back at a time when jet lag could seriously cut into practice time. I have a sneaking suspicion that some of the top skaters skipping scoring events is a convenient way of getting out of having to do the GPF. Many of the federations have Nationals in late December or early January; Japanese Nationals will be less than a week after the GPF. It's true that the trip from China to Japan isn't that bad, but OTOH, many of the Japanese ladies (Suguri, Onda, Arakawa) train in the US so the trip TO China will be a drag.
I think she strained her back because she basically took the summer off, then went apartment hunting and moved, and she hardly trained at all. It was clear at Campbell's that she was no where near in competition shape, and she probably tried too hard to make up for the time off in the 3 weeks between Campbell's and SA.
I'd say she is without a doubt entirely out of the GP.
I don't think that's such a bad thing. The GPF is in China, December 16-19, just 3 weeks before US Nationals. It's a long plane trip going and coming back at a time when jet lag could seriously cut into practice time. I have a sneaking suspicion that some of the top skaters skipping scoring events is a convenient way of getting out of having to do the GPF. Many of the federations have Nationals in late December or early January; Japanese Nationals will be less than a week after the GPF. It's true that the trip from China to Japan isn't that bad, but OTOH, many of the Japanese ladies (Suguri, Onda, Arakawa) train in the US so the trip TO China will be a drag.
Vash01 said:
Sasha always gives me the feeling she is so fragil. The last two seasons, she went out full forces, well may be not all of TT's idea. But TT did tweakle her program from each comp, which added the difficulty for her skating clean. That must add extra pressure on her physically and mentally. JMO.
No, I wouldn't say Michelle's previous coach overtrained her. Being on the top of sport that long, she simply know when to stop. When to keep it up.
Maybe the range of motion is what contributes to injury. I'm thinking about how Ilia Klimkin and Sasha Cohen have a greater range of motion than other skaters in their elements (his cantiliever, her spiral) that might weaken their bodies when they do their jumps. Interesting how MK has an injury that is aggravated when she is trying to increase her range of motion to get more positions in a layback spin.
I also wouldn't be surprised if the reduced prize money is having its effect. I think it's really difficult to expect skaters who are used to x amount of prize money to conjure up any enthusiasm when they reduce the prize money so significantly. Most of these skaters are used to prize money and only a few have competed in events when they didn't offer prize money.
I also wouldn't be surprised if the reduced prize money is having its effect. I think it's really difficult to expect skaters who are used to x amount of prize money to conjure up any enthusiasm when they reduce the prize money so significantly. Most of these skaters are used to prize money and only a few have competed in events when they didn't offer prize money.
The price money could be a factor, but I don't think its decisitive factor for any skaters.
And I don't think its factor in Sasha and Michelle case.
The ISU officiers should take the pay cut instead of take away skater's price money. JMO. In that case, more power to USFSA they provide the bonus money to skaters who skated well in GPs.
Now with top men and ladies all drop out like flies. I guess I'll just watching pairs in GPs.
And I don't think its factor in Sasha and Michelle case.
The ISU officiers should take the pay cut instead of take away skater's price money. JMO. In that case, more power to USFSA they provide the bonus money to skaters who skated well in GPs.
Now with top men and ladies all drop out like flies. I guess I'll just watching pairs in GPs.
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Zheng, I think the prize money is a factor for some skaters, particularly if they are from the poorer federations. If they have to travel very far to a competition where they probably won't finish on the podium, the prize money might not even cover their travel expenses.
IIRC, Sasha was out for a season with a stress fracture of a vertebra. She's quite lucky that she never had the type of apparent career ending injury like Naomi Nari Nam. They both appeared on the elite level about the same time, but it seems that NNN's injury has stopped her career progression. Quite a shame 
I read somewhere (could it be SashaFan?) they called it curse of 'Dark Eye'. According to the poster, the year Sasha sit out national's with back injury, she also skated to 'Dark Eye' musics.
I was thinking how coincident that she was injured a year before Olympics at last Olympics.
Here is a link to SkateFan, she has some interesting POV about Sasha's off ice trainning.
http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/SkateFans/message/137400?threaded=1
I was thinking how coincident that she was injured a year before Olympics at last Olympics.
Here is a link to SkateFan, she has some interesting POV about Sasha's off ice trainning.
http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/SkateFans/message/137400?threaded=1
This is a shame. It's best to take care of herself before permanent injury occurs. I think it's the curse of the "Let's up the ante" gods, who want to bring back graceful, sublime skating and leave the triple, triple tricks to some other sport................... 
42
42Well is prize money even an incentive for Sasha and MK? These skaters are being subsidized by the USFSA to the tune of 6 figures a year (I think one forum said MK got around 700K a year, the USFS has these numbers posted somewhere). Not picking on MK b/c most of the top skaters are heavily subsidized by their federations (Alexei got 327K from the Russian federation to stay eligible and then hurt his hip), is there any need for them to even bother to compete in the Grand Prix? Maybe if they got rid of or reduced the subsidies and put the money into prize money for the Grand Prix event, the top skaters would make more of an effort to compete in the event (and give better performances). Or better yet, just get rid of the line between eligible and professional and let MK and company get the dough from pro comps and then put 600K into the Skate America competition. I think that a 100k first prize would be enough incentive to compete in these events.
Why no mention of this in her journal all summer? She has been good at faithfully updating. Talk of shingles, the flu, spider bites. I think back pain would have been discussed. Sounding very strange. I wonder what Robin thinks? I wonder if this makes her think of Sarah and how determined and great she was?
