Cohen Tries New Spin in Bid to Make Team

After missing the U.S. figure skating championships early this year because of a broken vertebra, Sasha Cohen was hoping no one had forgotten her.

Her performance at the Finlandia Trophy competition this week could be one that will be remembered for a long time.

Cohen, the 2000 U.S. silver medalist, has been experimenting with a quadruple salchow at her Aliso Viejo practice rink. She has been hitting about half her attempts, often just brushing the ice with her other foot.

If she can become the first female skater to land a quad in competition--or if she comes close and is rewarded on her technical marks--she could gain psychological and strategic boosts in her effort to make the U.S. team for the Salt Lake City Olympics.

The team that will be chosen at the national championships, Jan. 6-13 at Staples Center, will include three women’s singles skaters.

“I would like to try it in Finland,” said Cohen, who was assured by the U.S. Olympic Committee that Helsinki is a safe destination in these tense times.

“Finland is kind of a low-key competition. You could say it’s one of my least important .... If there’s any place to put it out there, that’s the place.”

Because she hadn’t competed since November and needed to become competition-sharp, Cohen entered four events this season. That’s one more than Michelle Kwan, the U.S. and world champion, and Sarah Hughes, the 2001 U.S. runner-up and world bronze medalist.

In the season-opening Goodwill Games, Cohen finished fourth after faltering a bit in her “Carmen” long program.

“It was my plan, through these competitions, to reestablish her as a leading skater on a number of levels,” said her coach, John Nicks.

“Not only her ability to skate well, which everyone knew of, but that she was able to train hard after her injury, because there had been speculation otherwise. And, of course, to have various international judges familiarize themselves with her ability.

“I was super pleased about what she did. With the exception of Sarah Hughes, all the top skaters in the world were there. She placed fourth, and it was very tight for third. It could have gone either way.” Cohen will be 17 on Oct. 26 and is a senior at Aliso Niguel High. She has grown about four inches, to 5 feet 1, the last two years, and added speed and power to her grace and elegance.

“She’s much more mature,” Nicks said. “But of course, she’s always been mature regarding her musicality and her style. Everybody tells me, ‘She has a beautiful look. She must take a lot of ballet,’ and she does not. It’s all a natural feel for position.”

She is also naturally impatient. Cohen wanted so badly to compete at the last U.S. championships, she flew to Boston and hoped for a last-minute recovery. Only when she was told she could aggravate the injury did she withdraw. Nicks usually has to shoo her off the ice at the end of her practice sessions to keep her from overextending herself and risking injury. However, she’s learning that gradual progress can be rewarding.

“I want to improve my triple-triple since the Goodwill Games, and I’ve been working on elements to see what I can make higher, better and stronger,” she said. “I guess I could look way out there and say, ‘I want Olympic gold and I want national gold,’ but there are a lot of steps I need to take. It’s difficult to get there.

“My next goal is Finland, and we’ll see where things are after that. Everything will come, slowly. You can’t get everything all at once.”

The Long and Short of It

The new “Scheherazade” long program Kwan performed at the Goodwill Games is a work in progress, according to her choreographer, Sarah Kawahara.

Kwan, the five-time U.S. and four-time world champion, finished second to Russia’s Irina Slutskaya.

Kwan opened up on a planned triple flip and reduced a triple loop to a double in the long program, enabling a cautious but solid Slutskaya to prevail in the first head-to-head meeting of the two women expected to vie for Olympic gold.

“It wasn’t, I’m sure, where she wanted it to be exactly, but for a first showing, it was good,” Kawahara said. “You don’t want to peak now, after all.

“I knew she had some technical problems, and I could see on her face how frustrated she was. She did the ending really well and finished very strong. She didn’t delete any choreography, and she could have, because she knew it would not make a difference. She didn’t mess around with it, and I was happy.”

Kawahara had choreographed the Torrance native’s three TV specials, and she welcomed the chance to team up again.

“When we did TV work, it was all done so fast,” Kawahara said. “With this, we were able to take two full weeks to set the program and take a month and a half to hone it. To be able to hone it is gratifying.

“I said to her, ‘The program isn’t where it will be five months from now, because if it is, we’re in trouble.’ The idea is to grow and build. Pacing and development are really important. There’s an arc of months, as opposed to a week.”

Kwan’s short program was the “East of Eden” routine she used most of last season in winning the U.S. and world titles. Having had such good results, she’s considering keeping it this season, unless she finds music she prefers.

Nary a Nari Nam

A slow recovery from hip surgery will prevent figure skater Naomi Nari Nam of Irvine from competing this season.

Nam, who was second at the 1999 U.S. championships, experienced muscle weakness after she returned to the ice and couldn’t regain her jumping ability.

Because she didn’t compete last season, she would have had to compete at regional and sectional events to qualify for the national competition. The local events begin this week, but she can’t yet do her entire range of triple jumps.

Nam, 16, changed her training to focus on regaining her fitness. She’s going to school this semester and will reevaluate her progress near Christmastime.

“She’s very, very disappointed,” said Nicks, who also coaches Nam. “I told her with all she’s done she’s still only 16, and she’s got another four or five years of competition.”

Still Running Strong

Alan Webb’s high school running success has carried over to college.

Webb, who set a national prep mile record in May, is a freshman at the University of Michigan. He won his first scored collegiate meet last weekend, at the Great American Cross-Country Festival at Rock Hill, S.C., covering the eight-kilometer course in 24 minutes 5 seconds. He’d previously won the Michigan Open in Ann Arbor in 25 minutes 21 seconds, running unattached.

In other running news, the Chicago Marathon reached its cap of 37,500 runners for the Oct. 7 race. Khalid Khannouchi set the men’s world marathon record of 2 hours 5 minutes 42.99 seconds there in 1999 .... The New York Marathon, to be held Nov. 4, got confirmations from defending women’s champion Ludmila Petrova of Russia, 1999 women’s winner Franca Fiacconi of Italy, 1997 and 1998 men’s winner John Kagwe of Kenya, 1999 men’s winner Joseph Chebet of Kenya, and 1996 men’s winner Giacomo Leone of Italy.

Here and There

Skier Hermann “The Herminator” Maier, badly injured in a motorcycle accident five weeks ago, has resumed light workouts at the Austrian team’s training center. However, it’s still doubtful he will be able to compete at Salt Lake City.

Citing security concerns, USA Boxing withdrew two teams from competitions in Azerbaijan and Ukraine in October .... Canada withdrew its skaters from a Junior Grand Prix figure skating event in the Czech Republic because of travel concerns. Also, the Skate Israel competition was canceled .... Mohini Bhardwaj of UCLA was chosen for the Pan American Championships gymnastics team competing this weekend in Cancun, Mexico. Tabitha Yim of Irvine also was chosen. Olympic gold medalists Tom Dolan and Ed Moses are scheduled to represent the Curl-Burke Swim Club in a timed-relay race Oct. 11 to raise money for victims of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Gary Hall, swimmer Gary Hall Jr.’s father, labeled as false rumors that his son planned to become an Australian citizen.

Hall said his son likes Australia and might train there but has no intention of giving up his U.S. citizenship.

Only 128 days until the Salt Lake City Winter Games.