Cohen Shortens the Odds

The answer was always there, in her head and her heart, but Sasha Cohen didn’t know it. She had to travel far, in every sense, to get to where she stood Tuesday, at center ice at the Winter Olympics with the roars of an appreciative crowd ringing in her ears and a gold medal within her reach.

Once a willful child who flouted authority and changed coaches and addresses three times in a two-year span, Cohen embodied patience and perseverance. Skating last in a field of 29, she performed an engaging routine to the Russian folk song “Dark Eyes” to edge past defending world champion Irina Slutskaya -- a Russian -- and lead the women’s figure skating competition by a sequin’s width.

Cohen, 21, of Corona del Mar, earned 66.73 points, including the top artistic score of 31.40. Slutskaya, whose jumps seemed to propel her toward the ceiling lights, had 66.70 points, including a top technical score of 36.21. Behind them, with 66.02 points, was Shizuka Arakawa of Japan, whose superb spins helped her eclipse Cohen’s technical score even though she couldn’t match Cohen’s balletic grace. The gold medal will be awarded after Thursday’s long program.

“I was really ecstatic to nail all the elements,” said Cohen, who wobbled only on the landing of a double axel, one of the required elements in her 2-minute 48-second routine. “I wasn’t too nervous skating. I was enjoying the performance.”

In the only discipline not already won by Russian athletes, all three U.S. skaters performed well. Kimmie Meissner, 16, of Bel Air, Md., is fifth with a personal-best 59.40 points after landing a triple-triple combination jump, and Emily Hughes, 17, sister of 2002 gold medalist Sarah Hughes, is seventh with a personal-best 57.08. Meissner skated second, four hours before Cohen, and had time to leave, eat dinner and return to watch the final group.

“Everyone was really good,” a wide-eyed Meissner said. “This is definitely the Olympics.”

It was a parade of sleek spirals, blurred spins, and difficult jumps performed with deceptive ease. The quality was good and the crowd lively, disappointed only when hometown favorite Carolina Kostner fell on her combination jump and ranked 11th.

The best jumpers were Slutskaya, with a triple lutz-double toe loop that she landed mostly on sheer will, Meissner with her triple lutz-triple toe loop, and the surprising sixth-place skater, 16-year-old Elene Gedevanishvili of Georgia, whose triple flip-triple toe distinguished her as the only skater besides Meissner to do a triple-triple combination.

The most artistic were Cohen, Arakawa skating to Chopin and Fumie Suguri of Japan, fourth with 61.75 points, skating to “Cancion Triste.” Probably the most enthusiastic was Hughes, a late replacement for the injured Michelle Kwan.

Competing on short notice “might have been less pressure,” she said. “A week ago, I was worrying about school and getting ready for my SATs, and here I am now.”

Sarah Hughes, in her last days as the reigning gold medalist, was in the arena cheering for her sister and waving a small American flag.

“She said to have fun with everything, and that’s what I did,” Emily Hughes said.

In the forefront was Cohen, wearing a turquoise dress trimmed in gold with purple fringe and beaded flowers on the skirt. She lost .14 off the base value of her triple lutz-double toe loop and lost .20 for a double axel that she fiercely fought to land, but she dazzled the audience with a routine that reflected the person she has become.

“She’s been very much more mature and she’s trained very hard,” said John Nicks, who coached her in Costa Mesa and Aliso Viejo from the time she was 12 until she was 18 and moved to Connecticut to work with legendary Russian coach Tatiana Tarasova. When that relationship soured, she spent a year working in New Jersey with Robin Wagner before she returned to California late in 2004.

“Tonight, for her, is a good start,” Nicks added. “A very good start. But it was only a start.”

Nicks, participating in his 13th Olympics -- two as a pairs skater and 11 as a coach -- played the role of the crusty coach to perfection. But he was also realistic, because Cohen has a history of crumbling under duress.

She was third after the short program at the 2002 Games before an error-filled long program dropped her to fourth, behind Sarah Hughes, Slutskaya and Kwan. She was first after the short program at the U.S. nationals and World Championships in 2004 but committed errors that allowed others to pass her.

This time, however, she isn’t tempted to look past the mundane to achieve the sublime.

“Everybody wants an Olympic gold medal,” she said. “It’s what you’re willing to put yourself through to get it. I want it, but I’m definitely not letting it be my main focus here.

“I think about it every day, of course. A couple of times a day. ‘Oh, it would be so nice to take one of these home.’

“But my main job this year is to enjoy the process, have fun with every moment, believe in myself and stay strong.

“Anyone on the street can say, ‘I want an Olympic gold medal,’ or, ‘I want a billion dollars.’ But what makes a difference is what you do day by day, minute by minute, to get to that goal.”

Slutskaya, 27, can also claim to have worked for her reward. She takes medication for vasculitis, an inflammation of the blood vessels, and when she’s home in Moscow she cares for her mother, Natalia, victim of a chronic kidney ailment.

“The last four years changed my life,” she said. “I’ve grown up. I understand that life is not only about figure skating.”

She seemed displeased with her scores but expressed pride in her performance.

“I skated great, and this is important for me,” she said. “I’m so happy. It was my best skating today.”

Cohen hopes that her best is yet to come, and she credited a book by John Wooden with revising her perspective on skating and life.

“You can’t live in the past and you can’t live in the future, but the present and what you do now can have an effect on the future,” she said. “And that’s what I’m trying is, really, to stay in the moment.”

A golden moment, perhaps.