It goes without saying that I'm very sorry Sasha is injured and as everyone else on this thread has expressed, I wish her a speedy recovery.
A few points: About these injuries being related to the COP, I hate to say IMO yes and no, but I can't help the ambivalence. The yes part of me feels that the rather sudden emphasis on three-jump combos and 3/3s are bound to increase injury rates and the COP certainly rewards such combos. However, the no part of me feels that even if the 6.0 system had remained in effect, three-jumb combos and 3/3s would have evolved into elite ladies skating anyway. With skaters such as Meissner, Kostner, and Arakawa able to pull them off consistently, of course they would use them in their arsenal no matter what the judging system. Three-jump combos and 3/3s are going to impress the judges whether it's OBO or COP.
Also, lest we forget, ladies have been attempting or doing 3/3s since the '88 Olympics. I'm just talking Olympics here since the technical elements always seem to ratchet up in an Olympic year. As Yelyoh pointed out, Sasha herself said in her intelligently worded answer to Peter the Dink's hand-grenade question that all the skaters would be up and down throughout the season. Better to have the injury happen now than in February. Hopefully Sasha and Nicks have learned something about how to balance her intensity of training with sufficient rest. And also, perehaps reexamine what they need to work on.
Point 2: Mathman wondered if this injury was a hip pointer. From the description, it doesn't sound like one to me. Hip pointers are contusions to the BACK of the pelvis, where the body is loaded with nerves from the spine and the pelvic bone is also packed with nerves as well as thick with marrow. Mathman is right that football players get them all the time and that hip pointers hurt like a MF.
However, the description of Sasha's injury is described as a contusion to the iliac crest of the pelvis, which is in the front. They are the bones on each side of the front of the pelvis that protrude in very thin people. The front of the pelvis does not have anywhere near the nerve or marrow density that the back of the pelvis does and while I'm sure Sasha's injury is painful--the article also described a cut and a bruise to her oblique abdominal muscle on one side--fortunately the pain would not, IMO, give Sasha the screaming meemies the way a hip pointer would.
Sasha is fortunate that her injury is a contusion and a cut and that no ligaments, tendons, muscles, or bones were actually torn or fractured in the case of bone. Michelle's injury is much more serious because she tore a ligament in her hip. Ligaments, in our mini anatomy lesson
, connect bone to bone and are not intended to stretch the way tendons and muscles do. A tear to a ligament needs any number of weeks to heal, depending on the severity, even with the best physical therapy in the world, which I'm sure Michelle is getting. That's just all there is to it.
In Olympic seasons skaters push the outside of the envelope which means we will be seeing more injuries, I'm sure. Just as an example, at the '98 Nagano Olympics, for the men it was the first time the quad was really in the game. Even though Elvis Stojko was the "Quad King," he came to Nagano with a torn groin muscle. For those who want the exact nature, he tore one or more of the adductor muscles on one leg, meaning the muscles that snap the legs together on a jump. The quad is murder on the adductors and off- and on-ice training methods had not yet been honed as to how to get the right level and ratio of strength and flexibility. As those of us who watched the '98 men's final know, Elvis tore the muscle even more during his free skate and the agonizing pain he was in was painfully obvious the moment he finished his FS.
Ilia Kulik also skated the Nagano Olympics with a back injury and another injury (I forget what) but it was good physical therapy, good on- and off-ice training, and a big dose of luck that his injuries were almost fully mended by the time of the Olympics. If the Olympics had been held a week or two earlier, who knows what would have happened?
My point is that injuries, trying to train so you peak at the right time, and the decisions of the skate gods are always more of a factor during Olympic seasons than regular seasons.
To all the skaters who may suffer injuries, sickness (eg, Karen Cadavy), or whatever on the road to the Olympics, may the skate gods be with you. Ideally we want every skater healthy and in top form for the Olympics. Unfortunately that just never seems to happen, which is just another reason why an OGM is so precious.
Sorry, didn't mean to pontificate. My bad.
Rgirl
