Sasha Cohen

Posted February 20, 200619 yr

Cohen was born to a Jewish family in Westwood, California USA; her mother, Galina, is a Russian Jewish immigrant and a former prima ballerina. A gymnast from an early age, Cohen switched to figure skating when she was seven years old. She is best known for her exquisite spiral sequences and outstanding layback spins as well as her flexibility and grace on the ice.

Cohen competed at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, finishing fourth. Her best season was 2003-04 when she took gold at three Grand Prix events and silver at both the U.S. National Championships and the World Championships. She withdrew from 2004 Grand Prix events due to a recurring back injury, but returned to place second at 2005 U.S. Nationals in Portland, Oregon and World Figure Skating Championships in Moscow, Russia.

Sasha got her Olympic season off to a good start by placing first at the Campbell's International Figure Skating Challenge. Soon after she withdrew from Skate America due to a hip injury. She came back strong with a second place finish at Trophee Eric Bompard.

In 2006, Cohen overcame a severe flu to capture her first U.S. National Championship, winning the Gold Medal with a score of over 199 points, at the time the highest score ever awarded to any female skater under the modern scoring system. With this victory Cohen secured a place on Team U.S.A. for the 2006 Winter Olympics, a spot made official on January 14th of that year by the United States Figure Skating Association.

(source: wikipedia)

Sasha leads the US Women's Figure Skating team into competition this week and is one of the heavy favorites to win gold. She is stunning and amazingly talented.

She actually was a guest on Heidi Klum's Project Runway not too long ago where the contestants designed her a new dress for her long program to possibly wear at the Olympics. We find out this week if she has in fact picked the winner's dress to skate in at the Olympics.