Turin – They are linked closely by score but not by approach. Thursday night, Sasha Cohen of the United States and Irina Slutskaya of Russia will learn which tack is better as they compete for arguably the most coveted prize at the Winter Olympics.
On one side is Cohen, 21, the career bridesmaid who is treating the Olympics like a honeymoon in the Alps, making friends, seeing new things and, along the way, throwing down the best score in Tuesday’s figure skating short program at 66.73.
On the other side is Slutskaya, 27, the two-time world champion and defending Olympic silver medalist who seems to be treating these Olympics like three days in a dentist’s chair. She performed with her usual workmanlike precision, nailing every element but lacking Cohen’s flair and stands a shade behind at 66.70.
“Tonight was a good start,” said John Nicks, Cohen’s coach. “It was a very good start. But it’s only a start.”
True. And Cohen and Slutskaya aren’t the only ones left in the race. Japan’s underrated Shizuka Arakawa, the 2004 world champion, is at 66.02, for a virtual three-way tie for the lead. Also, Cohen led a strong American contingent with teens Kimmie Meissner in fifth and Emily Hughes in seventh.
Considering the past two Olympic champions were surprise American teenagers, they can’t be discarded. Even the soft-spoken 16-year-old Meissner said, “Right now I feel pretty good about getting a medal.”
They’ll have a tough time beating Cohen, the way she’s skating. And acting. So will Slutskaya. Cohen has a history of falling out of titles or medal contention at the international level, but this is the new Cohen – not the one who blew the long program in Salt Lake City and fell from bronze to fourth.
On the biggest day of her skating life, scheduled to skate last at the ungodly hour of 11:14 p.m. Italy time, she spent Tuesday eating four meals, going to physical therapy, chatting with friends around the Olympic Village, watching speedskating on TV and talking to her mom.
That itinerary could be the same for some tourists.
“It was a really wonderful experience for me,” a beaming Cohen said. “I took it a second at a time. I skated strong. It was really tough competition and I know there were a lot of great performances, but to be able to skate my best at the end of the night was just wonderful.
“I had a great time out there, and I’m happy with this moment.”
Cohen couldn’t appear more relaxed if she was skating between periods at an L.A. Kings game. She joked with the media: “It’s always so funny when you go into the dining hall because the figure skaters are the only ones who wear makeup, so we get stares.”
She talked about the inspiration from people such as former UCLA basketball coach John Wooden, whose book she had read.
“It’s really good,” she said. “You can’t live in the past and you can’t live in the future, but you can live in the present and what you do now can affect your future, and that’s what I’m trying to do, is really staying in the present.”
Cohen’s short program was sensational. Dancing to “Dark Eyes,” a Russian gypsy song she calls “seductive and playful,” Cohen nailed her opening combination, a triple lutz-double toe loop, then followed with a perfect triple flip. Her double axel didn’t have much height, but she more than made up for it with fun, artistic step sequences that had the pro-Italian crowd – disappointed with Carolina Kostner’s 11th-place standing – clapping in rhythm.
While Cohen appears to feel the pressure only to make the bus on time, Slutskaya is feeling the pressure of the biggest nation in the world. Russia stands a Slutskaya gold medal from its first in women’s figure skating and the first sweep of all four disciplines in Olympic history.
After her performance, Slutskaya wanted nothing to do with the media in the mixed zone. A public relations woman held her hand as she said, “I skated great. That’s the important thing.” When asked if she felt the pressure, she responded, “It’s competition. I don’t want to tell you what I’m thinking.”
She did hint, however, in the later news conference that her scores may have been higher. Cohen beat her in the program components, the subtleties of the program, 31.40-30.49.
“The system has changed, but people don’t change,” Slutskaya said. “There are still judges and people pushing buttons.”
One of the night’s biggest surprises came from Hughes. Only 11 days ago, the 17-year-old sat at home in Great Neck, N.Y., “worrying about school and getting ready for my SATs.” Then nine-time U.S. champion Michelle Kwan withdrew with a groin injury and Hughes, the alternate, flew to Italy.
Like Meissner, who scored 59.40, Hughes skated a clean program and scored 57.08, blowing away her previous best of 51.42. Her older sister, Sarah, who won gold in 2002, was among a posse of Hugheses waving U.S. flags in the stands.
“Watching her in Salt Lake it was so great, because I saw her work so hard,” Emily Hughes said. “Now that I’m on the ice, I know how she feels and I guess she knows how I feel.”
Staff writer John Henderson can be reached at 303-820-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com.
