Cohen: Take That!

I watched the Women's Figureskating short program last night. A very nice night of elegant drama, in which the US women did well. Kimmie Meissner came out and put up a 1st place score that held for half the competition until Irena Slutskaya came out and nailed a energetic, fun performance. Emily Hughes put up a credible performance in which she seemed to have more fun than is usually associated with figure skating. They're currently in fifth and seventh place--still in range of medals when the pressure of the long program starts to take its toll.

But of course the star of the evening was Sasha Cohen. Skating dead last in a field of 29, she faced two strong performances by Slutskaya and Japan's Shizuka Arakawa, both sitting nearly six points ahead of the rest of the field. She skated the heck out of her program (rivaling Hughes for apparent enjoyment) and landed in first place--by three-hundredths of a point.

Just to put that in perspective, second-place Slutskaya is just over 10% ahead of the fourth place competitor, and 1% ahead of third. Cohen is just .04% ahead of Slutskaya.

The pressure to deliver on Thursday must be incredibly intense--for everyone. We're not talking about the Russian of Steel Yvgeny Plushenko, who was pretty much untouchable in the men's competition, finishing nearly 11% ahead of anyone else. Slutskaya and Cohen have a long history of choking under pressure. With such a thin margin, both will be under incredible strain to make every single move count. It's not a position I would want to be in.

Who will I be cheering for? Cohen, I suppose. But what would I most like to see? I'd like to see Irena, Sasha, Shizuka, Emily and Kimmie skate the performances of their lives so they can all walk away with no regrets. I'd hate to see a bunch of young women polishing the ice with their backsides as they each succumb to the pressure. Call me unpatriotic, but if they all skate really well and the top spots go to Russia or Japan, I'm okay with that.

But I'm already glad for Cohen. Last night should silence her critics for a little while.