The work Sasha Cohen has been doing on the ice doesn't compare to the task she is attempting inside her head. Cohen placed a partially eaten apple and cup of coffee on a table Friday and dropped into a chair in the bowels of the practice rink next to the Rose Garden. She had promised to do an interview on the eve of the deciding long program of the women's competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, but what occurred shortly after her practice session felt more like a therapy session.
Cohen had skated very well in the short program late Thursday night. But Michelle Kwan skated better. It is a storyline that has played out repeatedly over the years. Cohen, who for years has been described as perhaps the world's most talented figure skater, the one loaded with the most potential, has rarely achieved what many believe should be hers routinely: gold medals in major events.
Saturday, however, Cohen will get another chance. Because the long program is worth two-thirds of the final score, if Cohen tops Kwan, she will win her first U.S. championship.
"I think if I come in and really skate my best, I think yes, maybe I can be the champion," she said. "It's definitely not that easy to do but I'm working toward that. . . . I think I'm getting there. Not as fast as I would like, but everybody has a different track."
History is not in Cohen's favor. She has been runner-up to Kwan at nationals three times. Kwan has won eight titles and is seeking a record-tying ninth. There have been other near-misses in big competitions for Cohen. She has never won a world title, though she has finished second, fourth and fourth. She was fourth at the 2002 Winter Games.
"There's never been any question on her talent," said her coach, John Nicks. "I happen to think that if she performs to her potential, she's the best in the world. There is no doubt about that."
Nicks was asked what he would do or say to relax his star skater, to put her in the right frame of mind to compete at her best.
"Sasha is not a young lady easy to relax," Nicks said. "She is very intense about everything she does and very ambitious. I think those are wonderful qualities."
At the post-competition press conference on Thursday, Kwan, 24, who received three perfect 6.0 marks for presentation, looked calm and at ease. Cohen, 20, seemed slightly on edge. She had, as usual, made one mistake on a night Kwan had made none, putting her hand down while attempting a triple jump in combination. Cohen received excellent marks. Kwan did, too -- along with three perfect 6.0s for presentation.
"Of course I want to win," Cohen said Friday. "Everybody wants to win. But it's a tough nationals with very strong competition. There are lots of great skaters. Especially Michelle. She's been able to skate so well for so many years."
Even so, Cohen's short program included more complex spins than Kwan's. She can match Kwan for carriage and presentation. With a Ukrainian mother, and having sought the instruction of Eastern European coaches and choreographers, Cohen possesses a Russian style -- well-received internationally -- that other U.S. skaters lack.
The bane of Cohen's career has been turning her potential into victories.
The frustration "is more than not winning," she said. "It's more like missing that jump, being like, 'Aw, I can do this.' "
She views, or at least is trying to view, these championships as a fresh start, an opportunity to take a new approach. She says she isn't thinking about a gold medal; she is thinking about skating well. Her determination to accept nothing less than perfection, she said, has tormented her over the years. She has succeeded by nearly every measure, except for the one that considers the gold medal the only success.
"[I've often thought] I should be here, or I could do this," she said. "I did that for a while, but this year, I've taken that pressure off myself. . . . It will come. [I] will skate those perfect programs. There is no time limit. . . . I can keep going for the next 10 years."
Cohen has spent the last two years literally crossing the country in search of answers to her perceived problems: She dumped Nicks, her coach of eight years, shortly after finishing fourth at the Salt Lake Olympics, moving from California to Connecticut to join Tatiana Tarasova. Just over a year later, she switched coaches again, joining Robin Wagner of Long Island, N.Y.
A month ago, she made yet another switch, going back to Nicks. Back home in Orange County, Calif., she said she is more comfortable. And after two tumultuous seasons, she said, she is more mature.
"I was looking for something or for someone to make me number one," Cohen said Friday. "I've kind of realized over the past two years that that person is me."
The other thing she has learned: If she doesn't get to the top of the mountain Saturday, she can come back and try again.
"This nationals really feels different for me," she said. "It's been a more enjoyable experience. I'm less nervous, more focused on the process. I've taken the focus off winning and put it on skating well and enjoying my skating."
