Sasha Cohen 2010?

Chew On This

Sasha Cohen has earned the silver medal at the 2006 Winter Games, The media’s question remains: Will the figure skater be back in 2010? Sasha Cohen won’t say whether or not if she has permanently retired from competition. It will be interesting to see what happens.

Sasha is one of the best figure skaters I have ever seen, she interacts with her audience, when she skates, it is like watching a ballerina on ice. Sasha truly loves this sport. She is one of the most beautiful skaters in the world. If she ever gets over the curse of falling during the free skate that would make her one of the best, if not the best, skater in the world now that Michelle is not in the picture. Can she pull it off in 2010? That remains to be seen.

This sport, with the new code of points system, is being restricted to the prepubescent teens. As a result of the countless of jumps that have to be implemented, you might as well call it a “jumping contest.” As a parent, sometimes I worry about the aggravation those youngsters’ bodies are being put through. I wonder how Tara Lipinski (and her replacement hip) feels about this new judging system. The sport is sorely canted toward non-menstruating “girls.” Sasha has enjoyed an incredible skating career and the number of medals she has earned is a testament to that.

Sasha is an unbelievable skater; however, Cohen realizes her weaknesses. Unfortunately, she has a habit of not being able to skate two clean performances when under pressure. What I see is a skater who needs to do a self evaluation, and analyzed her skating based on the current scoring system and those prepubescent jumping beams and decided wether she needs to put her twenty some odd year-old body through this unrealistic “dream.” She would really have to work on her technical elements. With the new scoring system her technical elements must be solid and hers are not. She is very artistic. In this scoring system, jumps trump art.

Cohen's strength is her artistic ability. She is an awesome skater. She is a brilliant skater. Her moves are beautiful, gorgeous and the commentators are always in awe of her when she appears to be “on”; that is when Cohen stops falling. The question is WHEN! . As Dick Button would say “When is she on.” I still maintain that Sasha should stick with skating as a professional or with acting at the very least. Sasha has given me so much pleasure in watching her skate. I see the younger skaters in their jumping contest, now, it is not the same. Sasha skates with grace and elegance. I can watch her skate for a long time.

The prepubescent teens can consistently execute the moves for the big scores, yet paradoxically they can't compete internationally because they're too young! I found the "babies" who competed at the US Nationals, to be boring little jumping machines. They can jump, but where is the artistry, they are not polished, and I don't think they will have such an impact on figure skating until they have developed some artistry and elegance other than jumping.

Change the scoring system. Ditch the crooked judges, bring back the 6.0 system, in order to reward something other than mechanics and physics, and let's see maturity and elegance out there!