Cohen Takes First Step Toward U.S. Title
by Michelle Wojdyla
 (St. Louis, Mo., 1/12/06) - The largest crowd of the week so far at the Savvis Center in St. Louis, Mo., watched 19 ladies fight for three spots on the 2006 Olympic Team next month in Torino, Italy. With nine-time and reigning champion Michelle Kwan sidelined with an injury, the possibility of only two spots (Kwan has petitioned for one of the three) available may have been too much pressure for many of the ladies to handle. It was a sloppy event, with nearly as many falls as triple jumps, but at the end of the night, three ladies were the class of the field.
Sasha Cohen (Orange County FSC) was the star of the night, scoring 65.15 points. Emily Hughes (SC of New York) is second with 59.11 and Bebe Liang (All Year FSC) third with 58.82. Kimmie Meissner (University of Delaware FSC) received 55.03. Alissa Czisny (DetroitSC), 54.51, and Christine Zukowski (University of Delaware FSC), 51.01, round out the top six.
Cohen skated last year’s short program to “Dark Eyes” in a new gypsy-like costume. Her only negative scores came on her triple flip, where she lost –1.43 due to a poor landing. She received as high as +3 on her level 4 spiral and her level 3 straight-line step sequence. Her components ranged from 6.75 for transitions to 9.0 for interpretation.
“I was pretty happy with that,” Cohen said “I really enjoyed the performance tonight, and I’ve had a whole week of unknowns being in bed with the flu. So, I think I spent the majority of the past five days in bed. I am really happy that I have been getting better, and I am really well trained and this is definitely half as good as I have been doing in practice.”
The illness zapped Cohen in multiple ways.
“My transitions, my spins, my speeds were really suffering,” she said. “I just kind of wanted to get from beginning to end. I have trained my jumps really hard. I am confident in them, and I just didn’t really have the training and the strength to be 100 percent.
“When I came down with [the flu] on Saturday morning, I couldn’t even get out of bed. I thought, ‘I have been taking every single vitamin and every single everything and I have been going to bed at 9:30 every night – how is this happening?’ But, you can’t control what happens, you only have the option of your reaction of what happens. Everyone deals with adversity, you just have to handle it the best you can. From then on, I called every doctor, got every medicine, vitamin, everything I could use – got to bed, had fluids and rested. Every single remedy, whether it was folklore or medicine from the pharmacy. I tried everything – positive thinking – and I have been getting better.”
With Kwan out, Cohen—who has placed second or third in every appearance at the senior level of the U.S. Championships—is the heavy favor to finally take the gold. Cohen said it was odd to compete without her main rival.
“It feels a little empty without her here,” Cohen admitted. “Ever since I have heard of figure skating or been at nationals, Michelle’s always been a big part of the events. So, I definitely miss competing here with her, and it doesn’t even quite feel like a nationals.”
Cohen was asked if she finally feels this is her time to shine.
“That is an interesting question and I have heard it quite a bit in the past few years,” Cohen said. “It is an interesting answer to an interesting question. I have just kind of evolved in the way that I think, and I have learned to enjoy it. I feel really lucky to do what I do and the situation that I am in – I love it. And, I learned to become a better athlete off of the ice – that is where the real training is. Ice is slippery; anything can happen to anybody; I have seen that at numerous events. I am going to have fun out there and trust my training and not worry, because I have figured out that the worry doesn’t help, and I hope my time is now. I just want to stay in the present and worry about what I have to do.”
Emily Hughes skated about 8:00 p.m. and had to wait two and a half hours to see if her score would hold up for second. It did, as Liang was short .29.
“That was a really good performance for me and really good that it happened today,” Hughes said. “Since the Marshalls event in December I have really tried to step up my training because I realized it was already December and nationals were so close. I felt confident coming into the competition.”
Hughes gave a strong performance to her Gershwin concerto. Her only error was a wild triple Lutz that she struggled to land before tacking on the double toe. She received level 3 and 4 for all her non-jump elements, and all of them received a positive GOE.
“I just really wanted to skate two great programs because this season hasn’t been what I wanted it to be,” Hughes said. “I wanted to try and skate two really good ones.”
The Hughes clan was in attendance to support the second youngest child.
“Five out of the six of us are here,” Hughes said. “Sarah is coming for the long program, then the whole family will be here. I think it is great to have such a great support system.”
Bebe Liang was the last skater to take the ice and made it worth the wait. Of the 72 GOEs, she received one lone –1. All the others were either base or +1. Like Hughes, her levels were all 3s and 4s.
“This is such a big year. Obviously this is the right year to put it together,” Liang said. “It just felt so good to have fun with this program.
“Having to wait (to skate) sometimes it can get hard, but it is good to get my focus and it trains me to really keep my mindset,” she said. “I got to take a little break after my warm-up, but I felt really good when I got back on the ice.”
Liang’s program to David Foster’s “Firedance” was a powerful outing that included a triple Lutz-double toe, triple flip, and double Axel. Like in the short program, Liang drew the last position to skate in Saturday’s free skate.
“I came into the competition just focusing on my goal to do my very best and I don’t have control on what place that they give me,” Liang said. “I have control of what I do on the ice. I know that I can do it. I think for the long (program), I am going to stay focused and not get carried away with the short. I still have one more program to do. I will just ride on this and know that I can skate this well.”
2005 bronze medalist Kimmie Meissner had a rough skate, overrotating and stepping out of her opening move, the planned triple Lutz-triple toe. She was dinged –2.14 on the Lutz and given no credit for the rest of the combination. She also received -.13 on her combination spin that had messy transitions between the positions. Unlike the ladies above her, Meissner’s level of difficulties were 2s and 3s, with a lone 4 for her flying sit spin. Meissner has been fighting a cold that affected her performance.
“It is a little hard because I am pretty congested, so when I am breathing it is pretty nasty,” Meissner said, “but tonight it was a lot better than in practice.
I think overall it was pretty good, but I can do it a lot better. I can do my spins a little bit better. But, I feel like overall it was pretty good. I feel good going into the long (program).”
Alissa Czisny had two major mistakes in her program to Jesse Cook music. She fell on her double Axel and it was downgraded to a single that received all –3s, giving her only .30. She also fell on her flip.
“The program started out really good,” Czisny said. “I made the mistake on the double Axel and that doesn’t usually happen. Then, I think I just didn’t trust the triple flip.”
The ladies competition concludes Saturday evening and will be aired live on ABC Sports.
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