Paul Oberjuerge: Sasha on Ice
While you were sleeping ... Sasha Cohen went to the Palavela arena and practiced. This morning, Thursday, in Turin.
She looked fine. Not ill or sick. Though rumors or one or the other have been sweeping the Olympics since Wednesday, when Sasha skipped practice entirely.
This last 24 hours has got me to thinking about the pressure of these events, particularly the women's skate.
Win, and you're probably financially set for life. We love our women's skate gold medalists. Peggy Fleming, Dorothy Hamill, Kristi Yamaguchi, Tara Lipinski, Sarah Hughes. None of them are worried about where their next meal is coming from.
Lose, fail to medal, and you could slip into the Forgotten Zone where Nicole Bobek, Jill Trenary and Elaine Zayak now reside.
And it comes down to one performance, once every four years.
That's much tougher than in team sports where "there's always next year." Or even in world championships, where the concept is annual, not quadrennial.
So how crushing must the pressure be? Your recent life, your entire reputation, squashed into a single four-minute program?
The rumors on Sasha are ... she might be ill ... she might be injured. (A strained groin seems to be the injury most-cited.) Or maybe she really was just tired, Wednesday, after skating at about 11 p.m. the night before.
Anyway, she looks like she's ready to go. What's inside her head, we don't know, and won't find out for another 7-8 hours.
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