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Whatever your hand attains to do, - do. Kohelet 9:10 |
Alexandra Pauline "Sasha" Cohen (born October 26, 1984) is a U.S. figure skater. She is the 2006 Olympic silver medalist, a three-time World Championship medalist, the 2003 Grand Prix Final Champion, and the 2006 U.S. Champion.
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Cohen was born in Westwood, California, a neighborhood in Los Angeles. Her nickname "Sasha" is a Russian short name from "Alexandra". Her mother, Galina (née Feldman), is a Jewish immigrant from Ukraine and a former ballet dancer; her father, Roger Cohen, is a business consultant who is an attorney with Dorsey & Whitney LLP. Sasha graduated from Futures High School in Mission Viejo, California in 2002. Her sister, Natalia ("Natasha"), began college at Barnard College in August 2006.
In 2005, she published her autobiography, Fire on Ice. The autobiography was republished in 2006 adding a new chapter on the 2006 season.
Cohen understands Russian.
A gymnast from an early age, Cohen switched to figure skating when she was seven years old, but it wasn't until she was eleven that she began to take the sport seriously. One of her early skating coaches was the father of actor Anton Yelchin.
Cohen rose to prominence in the skating community during the 2000 U.S. Championships. Just up from juniors, Cohen dropped from first place after the short program to second after the free skating and qualified for the world team. Too young for the 2000 World Championships, a loophole at the time would have allowed her to compete in senior worlds if she medaled at the World Junior Championships. Cohen did not medal at world juniors and so did not go to senior worlds.
Cohen did not compete at the 2001 Nationals due to a stress fracture in her back, but took back her silver medal at the 2002 U.S. championships, earning her a trip to the Olympics. Cohen competed at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, finishing 4th. She also finished 4th at the 2002 World Championships, held in Nagano.
Cohen switched coaches from John Nicks to Tatiana Tarasova in the 2002–03 season. She won her first ISU Grand Prix event in the 2002 Skate Canada and repeating as gold medalist in the 2002 Trophée Lalique. She finished second in the 2002 Cup of Russia. These three placements earned her a spot to the 2002–2003 Grand Prix Final, where she became the champion. At the 2003 U.S. championships she won the bronze medal, and at the 2003 World Championships, held in Washington, D.C., Cohen placed 4th, repeating her placement in the previous season.
Her best season was 2003–04, when she took gold at the 2003 Skate America, at the 2003 Skate Canada (setting a world record in the short program) and at the 2003 Trophée Lalique and won silver at the 2003–2004 Grand Prix Final. She changed her coach in the middle of the season, moving from Tatiana Tarasova to Robin Wagner, and placed second at both the 2004 U.S. Championships and the 2004 World Championships, getting a medal at Worlds for the first time in her career.
Cohen decided to go back to her first coach John Nicks in the 2004–05 season. She withdrew from the 2005 ISU Grand Prix events due to a recurring back injury. She placed 2nd at the 2005 U.S. championships in Portland and the 2005 World Championships in Moscow, Russia.
Sasha Cohen started her Olympic season by placing 1st at the Campbell's International Figure Skating Challenge. Soon after she withdrew from Skate America due to a hip injury. She took 2nd place at Trophée Eric Bompard, where she fell on a triple salchow during her free skate. In 2006, Cohen overcame the flu to capture her first U.S. championship. With this victory Cohen automatically secured her place on the U.S. Olympic team for the 2006 Winter Olympics, a spot made official on January 14 of that year by the United States Figure Skating Association.
At the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Cohen was in 1st after the short program, leading Russia's Irina Slutskaya by a mere .03 points. In the final free skate, Cohen fell on her first jump, a triple lutz, and had her hands down on her second jump, the triple flip. She completed the rest of her elements, including five triples. Cohen finished with an Olympic silver medal, her first Olympic medal. The Olympic gold medalist, Shizuka Arakawa of Japan, won by 7.98 points over Cohen.
A month later at the 2006 World Championships in Calgary, Canada, Cohen was in 1st place after the short program. Completing only one jump combination and falling on the triple salchow, she placed fourth in the free skate and won the bronze medal, finishing almost ten points behind her teammate, gold medalist Kimmie Meissner. Cohen displayed strong presentation in her free skate and picked up level fours on all her spins and her spiral sequence. Her program component score of 61.35 was the highest of the night.
In April 2006, Cohen started the Champions on Ice tour, participated in the second annual "Skating with the Stars, Under the Stars" gala in Central Park and performed in the Marshalls U.S. Figure Skating International Showcase. On April 15, 2006, Cohen announced that she intended to compete in the 2010 season and the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. She said via her official website, "I will decide after the COI Tour how much skating and what events I will do next season."
In December 2006, Cohen announced that she needed "a little downtime from competing" and that she would not defend her US Figure Skating Championship title in 2007. She again stressed that her "major goals" were the 2009 World Championships and the 2010 Olympics; "I know I want to be in Vancouver for the 2010 Olympics."
Cohen did not compete in 2007, 2008, or 2009, although she did not give up her Olympic eligibility. She performed in exhibitions, including the Rockefeller Christmas Tree lighting and USFSA-approved events. She was a headliner in the 2007–08 and 2008–09 Stars on Ice tour.
Cohen announced on May 6, 2009 that she planned to make a comeback for the 2010 Winter Olympics. She received invitations to compete in the 2009 Trophée Eric Bompard and in the 2009 Skate America in the 2009–2010 Grand Prix Series. Cohen was forced to withdraw from both of her planned Grand Prix events due to an injury to her calf.
On January 21, 2010 Cohen finally took to the competitive ice for the first time in four years at the 2010 U.S. Championships in Spokane, Washington. She debuted her program to España Cañí, and skated a strong performance landing a triple lutz-double toe, a triple flip, a double axel, along with her signature spiral sequence and spins earning 69.63 points putting her in second place, just 0.43 from first place finisher Mirai Nagasu. However, her free skate, set to Moonlight Sonata, was filled with errors; she fell on a triple flip and had two-footed landings on a number of other jumps. Cohen finished fourth in the championships, behind Rachael Flatt, Mirai Nagasu and Ashley Wagner, and was not selected for the Olympic team, however was appointed as second alternate to the 2010 U.S. Olympic team and the 2010 World Championship team.
Sasha Cohen was coached by John Nicks until the summer of 2002, when she relocated to Simsbury, Connecticut to train with Russian coach Tatiana Tarasova, who choreographed Cohen's Swan Lake program and upgraded her footwork. Under Tarasova's coaching, Cohen landed her first triple-triple combination in competition, a triple lutz-triple toe. Also, Cohen completed her first clean free skate in the qualifying round at the 2003 World Championships.
She changed coaches again in January 2004 to Robin Wagner (who coached Sarah Hughes to Olympic gold) in Hackensack, New Jersey. In December 2004, Cohen returned to California to work with her original coach, John Nicks, who trained her to compete in the 2006 Winter Olympics. Nicks, who is very knowledgeable on the Code of Points system, helped Cohen increase the difficulty of her spins and spirals, as well as her jumps, to maximize her performances under the new system.
With her announcement of a comeback on May 6, 2009, she also announced that she would train with Rafael Arutunian, instead of her former coach John Nicks.
On November 2009, she returned to train with John Nicks.
Cohen is known for being a talented skater, though her critics say she has never skated two clean programs in a row.
Cohen is the first skater to have received +3s for spirals in the new judging system for 'Grade of Execution'. She is also known for difficult and creative positions in her spins, such as the "I" spin position which she popularized, and is also sometimes informally referred to as the "Sasha spin."
Cohen has participated in the ice show Stars On Ice for several years, as well as starring in the 2010 Art On Ice alongside Stéphane Lambiel.
She joined 2010 Olympic ladies champion Kim Yu-Na in the All That Skate ice show, scheduled for July 23–25, 2010 in Goyang, South Korea, alongside other skaters including Michelle Kwan, Stéphane Lambiel and Brian Joubert.
Cohen has done commercials for Citizen Watch, Simply Saline, and Got Milk?. She appeared in Episode 7 of the second season of Project Runway wherein designers were challenged to design a skating dress for her. The winning dress (by Zulema Griffin) did not fit and the dress had to be resized. Cohen made a brief appearance guest starring as herself on the May 5, 2006 episode of the NBC drama, Las Vegas. In April 2008, she appeared as a contortionist on the premiere episode of Secret Talents of the Stars and advanced to the semifinals, although the show was cancelled before she could perform again. She made a guest appearance as an ice skater in ' season 3 episode 12 "Silent Night".
Cohen played Fiona Hughes in the Don Johnson movie Moondance Alexander. At the 2006 Academy Awards, Cohen served as a guest correspondent for Inside Edition. This experience led to an encounter with Ben Stiller and a discussion about having a part in a future comedy about figure skating, which Cohen said she would enjoy. In 2007, she appeared as herself in Blades of Glory. Later that year, she also had a role in Bratz: The Movie.
| Season | Short Program | Long Program | Exhibition. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009–10 | España Cañí by Pascual Marquina Narro choreographed by Lori Nichol | Moonlight Sonata by Ludwig Van Beethoven choreographed by Nikolai Morozov | Sick and Tired by Anastacia choreographed by Sasha Cohen Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen performed by Jeff Buckley choreographed by Sasha Cohen Mein Herr Soundtrack from Cabaret by Kander and Ebb choreographed by Sasha Cohen |
| 2008–09 | Did not compete this season | Did not compete this season | Moonlight Sonata by Ludwig Van Beethoven choreographed by Nikolai Morozov Don't Stop The Music by Rihanna choreographed by Sasha Cohen I Could Not Ask For More by Sara Evans choreographed by Sasha Cohen Hard To Say I'm Sorry by Chicago performed by Peter Cetera choreographed by Sasha Cohen Blue Christmas by Elvis Presley performed by Peter Cetera choreographed by Sasha Cohen |
| 2007–08 | Did not compete this season | Did not compete this season | What's Left Of Me by Nick Lachey choreographed by Sasha Cohen Hurt by Christina Aguilera choreographed by Sasha Cohen |
| 2006–07 | Did not compete this season | Did not compete this season | Hurt by Christina Aguilera choreographed by Sasha Cohen It's So Hard To Say Goodbye by Boyz II Men choreographed by Sasha Cohen Anytime, Anywhere by Sarah Brightman choreographed by Sasha Cohen |
| 2005–06 | Dark Eyes Russian folk song choreographed by Nikolai Morozov | Romeo and Juliet Soundtrack from the 1968 movie by Nino Rota and André Rieu choreographed by David Wilson | God Bless America by Celine Dion choreographed by Sasha Cohen Don't Rain on My Parade by Barbra Streisand choreographed by John Nicks and Sasha Cohen |
| 2004–05 | Dark Eyes Russian folk song choreographed by Nikolai Morozov | Pas de deux from The Nutcracker by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky choreographed by Marina Zoueva and Igor Shpilband | Don't Rain on My Parade by Barbra Streisand choreographed by John Nicks and Sasha Cohen |
| 2003–04 | Malagueña by Ernesto Lecuona choreographed by Tatiana Tarasova | Swan Lake by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky choreographed by Tatiana Tarasova | My Fair Lady Soundtrack from the 1964 movie by Frederick Loewe choreographed by Robin Wagner Romeo and Juliet Soundtrack from the 1968 movie by Nino Rota and André Rieu choreographed by Tatiana Tarasova |
| 2002–03 | Malagueña by Ernesto Lecuona choreographed by Tatiana Tarasova and Nikolai Morozov | Piano Concerto No. 2 by Sergey Rachmaninoff choreographed by Tatiana Tarasova and Nikolai Morozov | Romeo and Juliet Soundtrack from the 1968 movie by Nino Rota and André Rieu choreographed by Tatiana Tarasova One Day I'll Fly Away from Moulin Rouge! by Nicole Kidman choreographed by Sasha Cohen |
| 2001–02 | My Sweet and Tender Beast by Evgeni Doga choreographed by John Nicks and Sasha Cohen | Carmen by Georges Bizet choreographed by John Nicks and Sasha Cohen | Hernando's Hideaway by Ella Fitzgerald choreographed by John Nicks and Sasha Cohen Aria by Heitor Villa-Lobos choreographed by John Nicks, Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sasha Cohen |
| 2000–01 | My Sweet and Tender Beast by Evgeni Doga choreographed by John Nicks and Sasha Cohen | Dark Eyes Russian folk song orchestrated by the London Festival Orchestra choreographed by John Nicks and Sasha Cohen | Anytime, Anywhere by Sarah Brightman choreographed by John Nicks, Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sasha Cohen To Love You More by Celine Dion choreographed by John Nicks and Sasha Cohen |
| 1999–2000 | Baroque Selections by Antonio Vivaldi and Tomaso Albinoni choreographed by John Nicks and Sasha Cohen | Violin Concerto by Felix Mendelssohn choreographed by John Nicks and Sasha Cohen | Madame Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini choreographed by John Nicks and Sasha Cohen |
| 1998-1999 | Piano Concerto No. 2 by Sergey Rachmaninoff |
| Event | 1997–98 | 1998–99 | 1999–00 | 2000–01 | 2001–02 | 2002–03 | 2003–04 | 2004–05 | 2005–06 | 2009–10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winter Olympic Games | 4th | 2nd | ||||||||
| World Championships | 4th | 4th | 2nd | 2nd | 3rd | |||||
| World Junior Championships | 6th | |||||||||
| U.S. Championships | 6th N. | 2nd J. | 2nd | WD | 2nd | 3rd | 2nd | 2nd | 1st | 4th |
| Grand Prix Final | 1st | 2nd | ||||||||
| Skate America | 5th | 1st | WD | |||||||
| Skate Canada International | 1st | 1st | ||||||||
| Trophée Eric Bompard | 3rd | 1st | 1st | 2nd | WD | |||||
| Cup of Russia | 4th | 2nd | ||||||||
| Nations Cup | 5th | |||||||||
| Finlandia Trophy | 1st | |||||||||
| Junior Grand Prix, Sweden | 1st | |||||||||
| Gardena Spring Trophy | 1st J. | |||||||||
| Pacific Coast Sectionals | 2nd N. | 1st J. | 1st | |||||||
| Southwest Pacific Regionals | 2nd N. | 1st J. |
| 2009–2010 season | |||||
| Date | Event | QR | SP | FS | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 14 – 24, 2010 | 2010 United States Figure Skating Championships | – | 2 69.63 | 4 104.65 | 4 174.28 |
| 2005–2006 season | |||||
| Date | Event | QR | SP | FS | Result |
| March 21 – 23, 2006 | 2006 ISU World Figure Skating Championships | 3 27.59 | 1 66.62 | 4 114.67 | 3 181.29 |
| February 21 – 23, 2006 | 2006 Winter Olympics | – | 1 66.73 | 2 116.63 | 2 183.36 |
| January 7 – 15, 2006 | 2006 United States Figure Skating Championships | – | 1 65.15 | 1 134.03 | 1 199.18 |
| November 17 – 20, 2005 | 2005 ISU Grand Prix Trophée Eric Bompard | – | 2 60.96 | 2 114.16 | 2 175.12 |
| 2004–2005 season | |||||
| Date | Event | QR | SP | FS | Result |
| March 21 – 23, 2005 | 2005 ISU World Figure Skating Championships | 1 28.41 | 2 61.37 | 2 124.61 | 2 185.98 |
| January 9 – 16, 2005 | 2005 United States Figure Skating Championships | – | 2 | 2 | 2 3.0 |
| 2003–2004 season | |||||
| Date | Event | QR | SP | FS | Result |
| March 21 – 23, 2004 | 2004 ISU World Figure Skating Championships | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 4.0 |
| January 9 – 16, 2004 | 2004 United States Figure Skating Championships | – | 1 | 2 | 2 2.5 |
| December 11 – 14, 2003 | 2003–2004 ISU Grand Prix Final | – | 2 60.80 | 2 116.68 | 2 177.48 |
| November 13 – 16, 2003 | 2003 ISU Grand Prix Trophée Lalique | – | 1 69.38 | 1 127.81 | 1 197.19 |
| October 28 – 31, 2003 | 2003 ISU Grand Prix Skate Canada | – | 1 71.12 | 1 126.48 | 1 197.60 |
| October 23 – 26, 2003 | 2003 ISU Grand Prix Skate America | – | 1 66.46 | 1 130.89 | 1 197.35 |
| 2002–2003 season | |||||
| Date | Event | QR | SP | FS | Result |
| March 24 – 30, 2003 | 2003 ISU World Figure Skating Championships | 3 | 5 | 3 | 4 7.2 |
| February 28 – March 2, 2003 | 2002–2003 ISU Grand Prix Final | 1 (SP) | 2 (FS1) | 1 (FS2) | 1 2.6 |
| January 12 – 19, 2003 | 2003 United States Figure Skating Championships | – | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| November 22 – 24, 2002 | 2002 ISU Grand Prix Cup of Russia | – | 2 | 2 | 2 3.0 |
| November 14 – 17, 2002 | 2002 ISU Grand Prix Trophée Lalique | – | 2 | 1 | 1 2.0 |
| October 31 – November 3, 2002 | 2002 ISU Grand Prix Skate Canada | – | 1 | 1 | 1 1.5 |
| 2001–2002 season | |||||
| Date | Event | QR | SP | FS | Result |
| March 16 – 24, 2002 | 2002 ISU World Figure Skating Championships | 2 | 5 | 4 | 4 |
| February 21 – 23, 2002 | 2002 Winter Olympics | – | 3 | 4 | 4 5.5 |
| January 6 – 13, 2002 | 2002 United States Figure Skating Championships | – | 2 | 2 | 2 3.0 |
| November 15 – 18, 2001 | 2001 ISU Grand Prix Trophée Lalique | – | 3 | 3 | 3 4.0 |
| October 24 – 28, 2001 | 2001 ISU Grand Prix Skate America | – | 4 | 5 | 4 7.0 |
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