Sasha Cohen - US figure skater: personal life, sports achievements, coaches

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:44

Who hasn't admired the gracefulness and beauty of figure skaters?! However, behind the graceful axels and triple sheepskin coats that these fragile girls in bright dresses easily perform on the ice, there are years of titanic work. Not every girl can become a good figure skater. However, Sasha Cohen - a figure skater from the USA - having won silver at the 2006 Olympics, showed the whole world that she is not just a pretty young girl, but also a mature athlete who can cope with the most difficult figures.

Sasha Cohen Family

If Sasha's father Roger was 100% American, then Galina's mother was from Odessa, who emigrated to the US at the age of 16.

Galina Feldman once established herself as a good gymnast and ballerina, but she could not make a career in the USA. The talented emigrant soon got married andgave birth to two beautiful daughters - Alexandra and Natasha. If Natasha Cohen, when she grew up, became a pianist, then Alexandra, or, as her relatives called her, Sasha, followed in her mother's footsteps and became interested in sports.

The beginning of a sports career

Sasha Cohen was born in 1984 in a suburb of Los Angeles. As soon as she learned to walk, the baby began to do gymnastics. Having inherited flexibility and artistry from her mother, Sasha made great strides and easily performed the most difficult gymnastic exercises.

At the age of seven, still very young Alexandra, without the knowledge of her parents, signed up for classes at a local ice rink. Arriving home, Sasha confronted her father and mother with a fact: she was leaving gymnastics for single figure skating.

First successes

If at first figure skating was a pleasant pastime for Sasha, then by the age of eleven it became clear that the girl had talent. Small, agile, strong, with excellent gymnastic training, Alexandra was simply made for figure skating.

Starting to perform at various American competitions, Cohen immediately attracted attention. She rode truly divine. One of Sasha Cohen's signature numbers was the performance of the l spin element in her program, thanks to which the fans nicknamed the girl "Sasha spin".

However, Sasha Cohen really managed to draw attention to herself at the 2000 US Figure Skating Championships. The figure skater impressed the audience with her mature skill and got intoUS national team.

Due to intense, exhausting training, Sasha suffered a serious back injury the following year, which prevented her from competing at the US Championships. Quickly recovering, the very next year, Cohen again won silver at the US Championships, which became her ticket to the 2002 Winter Olympics.

Road to Olympic silver

Unfortunately, at the Olympics in S alt Lake City, Alexandra took fourth place, a little short of bronze. To improve her performance, Sasha decided to change her coach.

Like many US skaters, Ms. Cohen turned to a professional from Russia. After successful negotiations, Tatyana Anatolyevna Tarasova began to train the American, who brought up many champions.

Thanks to a new coach, Sasha Cohen improved her skills in the 2002-2003 sports season. Cohen won the Skate Canada, Trophée Lalique. At the Cup of Russia, Alexandra took the 2nd place, at the US Championships - only the 3rd, and at the World Figure Skating Championships, the girl came fourth.

The next sports season 2003-2004 was the best in Cohen's professional career. She has won gold at Skate Canada, Trophée Lalique and Skate America. In addition, Alexandra won silver at such prestigious competitions as the Grand Prix Final, the US and World Figure Skating Championships.

Unexpectedly for many sports fans, the Cohen-Tarasov union broke up in the middle of the figure skater's most successful season.

During the 2004-2005 sports season, she again suffered a serious back injurySasha Cohen. The figure skater was forced to miss important competitions, restoring her form, which did not prevent her, however, from winning silver medals at the US and world championships.

Fully recovered, during the 2005-2006 sports season, Alexandra won gold for the first time at the US Championships, and although she was only third at the World Championships, she still made the Olympic team.

Despite serious competition, at the 2006 Winter Olympics, Cohen demonstrated an excellent program. Due to two falls, she almost made it to gold, losing it to Japanese Shizuke Arakawa, and she herself became a silver medalist. It is noteworthy that earlier the Japanese figure skater was trained by Tatyana Tarasova and her team, with whom Sasha Cohen herself also worked.

Leaving the sport and trying to come back

After the Olympics, Sasha Cohen announced her retirement from the sport. After finishing her sports career, Cohen decided to try her hand at other fields. Using her skills as a figure skater, Alexandra participated in many show programs. In particular, Sasha was a regular participant in the famous TV show Stars On Ice for several years.

Also tried her hand as a film actress Sasha Cohen. The figure skater played small roles in the films Moondance Alexander, Blades of Glory and Bratz. Ben Stiller also invited the athlete to play in his new film about figure skating, but, unfortunately, this project was never launched.

Due to her frequent appearance on TV screens, Sasha Cohen has gained more fans,than during his successful sports career. She began to be invited to appear in commercials and on the covers of many sports publications. In addition, she was included in the rankings of the most beautiful athletes in the world (along with Anna Kournikova).

In the early 2010s, Sasha made an attempt to return to professional sports and even wanted to break through to the 2010 Olympics. However, due to tendon problems, the athlete missed many competitions, and in the US Championship she took only 4th place, which prevented her from getting to the 2014 Olympics.

Today, the girl continues her career on television. In January 2016, Sasha Cohen was inducted into the US Figure Skating Hall of Fame.

Sasha Cohen figure skater: personal life

As for her personal life, the beautiful Sasha has a lot of fans. However, the girl ventured into a serious relationship only recently.

While studying at Harvard Business School in 2014, at a university party, Alexandra met a hedge fund manager named Tom May. Shortly after they met, the couple began dating, and in 2015 announced their engagement.

Sasha Cohen's coaches: John Nicks, Robin Wagner and Tatyana Tarasova

When talking about the achievements of any athlete, it would be impolite not to mention his coach. After all, it is a wise, experienced mentor who can help an athlete succeed. Sasha Cohen has become famous for frequent coach changes, although this is not uncommon among professional athletes.

Cohen's first professional coach was Briton John Nix. When-then he was a famous figure skater, but, having completed his sports career, he moved to the USA and retrained as a coach. For a long time he trained Sasha Cohen, but after losing at the 2002 Olympics, the girl stopped working with him.

Russian Tatyana Tarasova became Cohen's new coach.

This woman raised eight Olympic champions and was perfect for the ambitious Alexandra. Tarasova seriously took up the young athlete, and under her leadership the girl achieved significant success. However, over time, disagreements began to arise between the athlete and the coach, and they stopped working together.

Cohen did not comment on the reason for this "gap". But Tatyana Anatolyevna, in some interviews, told her version of the reasons for what happened. According to her, Sasha is a very talented and efficient athlete. But the successes she achieved with Tarasova turned the girl's head and she began to violate the sports regime, which began to affect her he alth. Fearing to lose the support of sponsors, Cohen participated in competitions even when she was sick, which caused her results to deteriorate. However, instead of returning to the regimen, the girl chose to change her coach.

The next coach of Alexandra's shrew was American Robin Wagner. In addition to training, she also helped Sasha to set up a program in which elements previously developed by Tarasova were used.

At one time, Cohen was going to return to John Nix, but this did not happen. Tarasova claimed that the former coach simply did not acceptobstinate sportswoman. Other sources claim that due to the injury, Alexandra could not compete and the coach could not wait long for her to return. In any case, despite all the obstacles, Cohen was later able to win the Olympic silver.

A fairly complex and brutal sport is figure skating. Women can be professional skaters for a very short time, because after 25 years the body is not able to endure constant exhausting training and the number of injuries increases. In this regard, the chance to become an Olympic champion for a figure skater falls only 2-3 times in her life. So it happened with Sasha Cohen. She lost her first Olympiad, won silver at the second, and did not get to the third due to injuries and loss. Despite the fact that her career in sports was so short, the girl was able to find her place in life after her graduation, which is worthy of praise and admiration.